FRESH: Farouk Adekunle Adepoju Arrested After Hacking US Varsity Systems To Steal $235000
A Nigerian national residing in the United Kingdom, Farouk Adekunle Adepoju, has been arrested by British authorities in response to a U.S. extradition request tied to charges of wire fraud and computer fraud, Acting U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti announced.
Adepoju was taken into custody on September 15, 2025, and is currently awaiting extradition to the United States, where he faces a seven-count federal indictment in the Western District of Pennsylvania.
According to court documents recently unsealed, the alleged offenses occurred between March and April 2023.
Prosecutors claim Adepoju infiltrated the computer system of a construction firm contracted by a Pennsylvania university, manipulated internal email settings, and created a deceptive email account.
This scheme reportedly led the university to transfer approximately $235,266.80 into a fraudulent bank account.
Authorities confirmed that the stolen funds remain unrecovered.
“Adepoju is charged with using sophisticated cyber means to illegally access accounts belonging to a business in order to victimize one of our region’s universities,” aid Acting United States Attorney Rivetti in a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Even from halfway across the world, however, Adepoju was not beyond the investigative reach of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek said, “If criminals think they can scam people in the U.S. from overseas and get rich doing it, they should think again. The FBI and our partners won’t let that happen.”
Adepoju is facing six charges of wire fraud and one charge of computer fraud.
If convicted, he could get up to 20 years for wire fraud and up to 5 years for computer fraud.
