FBI arrests Nigerian ‘tech queen’ over ‘multi-million dollar fraud’

 

Sapphire Egemasi, a Nigerian tech enthusiast, is facing potential prison sentence of over 20 years in the United States following her arrest by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

She was arrested in connection with a large-scale fraud scheme that targeted multiple US government agencies.

A programmer, Egemasi, who operates a Devpost account, was arrested around April 10, 2025, in Bronx, New York, alongside other co-conspirators, including Samuel Kwadwo Osei, who appeared to have led the syndicate.

Their arrest stems from a federal grand jury indictment filed in 2024, charging the suspects with multiple counts of internet fraud and money laundering for crimes said to have occurred between September 2021 and February 2023.

Egemasi and her Ghanaian co-defendants allegedly conspired to defraud the city of Kentucky of millions of dollars.

Her role, investigators say, involved designing spoof websites impersonating official US government domains to steal login credentials and facilitate the transfer of stolen funds.

Before her arrest, Egemasi was reportedly based in Cambridge, United Kingdom, although authorities believe she previously lived in Ghana, where she likely established ties with her co-conspirators.

She allegedly served as the syndicate’s tech lead, orchestrating the creation of fake sites and overseeing wire transfers to accounts under the gang’s control.

Text message records show that in August 2022, the syndicate rerouted $965,000 stolen from Kentucky into a PNC Bank account.

In a separate transaction around the same time, $330,000 was funnelled into an account with Bank of America.

To conceal the origins of her wealth, Egemasi reportedly claimed to have held multiple roles, mostly internships, at major multinational companies, including British Petroleum, H&M, and Zara.

Widely known online as ‘tech queen’, Egemasi assumed a polished digital persona, especially on LinkedIn, where she showcased her skills and “flaunted a luxurious lifestyle”.

Her social media profiles featured photos of lavish vacations to destinations like Greece and Portugal, funded, according to prosecutors, through illicit proceeds.

Egemasi and her co-accused are currently in federal custody and are being held pending trial in Lexington, Kentucky.

If convicted, each faces up to 20 years in prison, significant financial penalties, and eventual deportation to their home countries upon completion of their sentences