By Emmanuel Nduka
A Nigerian national and self-styled “tech queen” Sapphire Egemasi, has been arrested by America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Her arrest is in connection with a sophisticated internet fraud and money laundering operation that allegedly defrauded several U.S. government entities of millions of dollars.
Egemasi, a skilled programmer and active Devpost user, was taken into custody around April 10, 2025, in the Bronx, New York. She was arrested alongside multiple co-conspirators, including alleged ringleader Samuel Kwadwo Osei, a Ghanaian national.
The arrest followed a federal grand jury indictment issued last year, which charged the group with crimes committed between September 2021 and February 2023.
According to federal court documents reviewed by Peoples Gazette, Egemasi played a critical technical role in the scheme. She allegedly created spoof websites mimicking official U.S. government portals in order to harvest login credentials and redirect funds into bank accounts controlled by the syndicate.
Investigators revealed that Egemasi previously resided in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and had lived in Ghana, where she reportedly met her co-conspirators and later joined their cybercrime network, which operated out of both the United States and Nigeria.
Evidence obtained by the FBI includes text messages indicating the group successfully diverted $965,000 in stolen funds to a PNC Bank account in August 2022. In a separate transaction around the same time, they allegedly funneled $330,000 to an account with Bank of America.
To mask the origins of her wealth, Egemasi falsely claimed on professional platforms that she had worked, mostly as an intern, at prominent multinational companies including British Petroleum, H&M, and Zara.
Egemasi, widely followed on LinkedIn and other social media platforms, cultivated a glamorous online persona. She was known for sharing images of her luxury lifestyle and international travels to destinations like Greece and Portugal—extravagances federal authorities now claim were financed through fraudulent activity.
She and her accomplices are currently being held in federal custody in Lexington, Kentucky, where they await trial.
If convicted, each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison, significant financial penalties, and possible deportation following the completion of their sentences.
