(José Niño, Headline USA) The FBI has unmasked Sapphire Egemasi, a 29-year-old tech influencer, as the alleged architect behind a sophisticated international fraud operation that siphoned over $1.3 million from Lexington, Kentucky’s city coffers, according to a report by the Daily Trust.
She was arrested by the FBI in the Bronx this April. Egemasi’s story began in the digital space, where she built a reputation as a successful developer, boasting internships at global brands such as British Petroleum, H&M, and Zara and sharing images of high-end fashion and exotic travel, according to a report by Pulse Nigeria.
But behind her carefully curated online image, federal investigators discovered that she was the mastermind of a cybercrime syndicate that targeted the city government of Lexington, Kentucky between September 2021 and February 2023, according to Pulse Nigeria.
Operating from Cambridge, United Kingdom, after a stint in Ghana, Egemasi allegedly leveraged her programming skills to create convincing fake government websites. These sites were used to trick municipal employees into handing over secure credentials, enabling the syndicate—led by Ghanaian national Samuel Kwadwo Osei—to re-route nearly $1 million into a PNC Bank account and another $330,000 into a Bank of America account in 2022.
The operation’s international reach, with conspirators in Nigeria, Ghana, and the United States, made it difficult for law enforcement to track and stop the fraudulent transfers.
The FBI’s investigation found that Egemasi’s lavish lifestyle was funded almost entirely through these illicit gains, not the tech ventures she promoted online. Text messages and digital evidence detailed her key role in building the infrastructure that enabled the fraud to succeed, while her social media presence helped mask her criminal activity.
Now held in federal custody in Lexington, Kentucky, Egemasi and her co-defendants face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
This fraud incident doesn’t appear to be an anomaly.
In a related scheme that occurred in 2022, the City of Lexington lost about $4 million intended for housing assistance after cybercriminals impersonated a trusted partner and tricked city employees into wiring funds to a fraudulent bank account.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
