Georgia man linked to 2014 UNI data breach charged with tax fraud

A Georgia man linked to a University of Northern Iowa data breach in 2014 has been charged with tax fraud in federal court.

Bernard Ogie Oretekor, 45, also known as Emmanuel Libs, was charged last week with theft of government property and aggravated identity theft.

Oretekor is accused of using the identity of another person with the initials 'R.A.” to steal the man's 2013 tax refund of $9,850, according to information filed in U.S. District Court. Oretekor filed the tax return in January and received the refund in February 2014.

UNI officials previously reported 270 employees received error messages from the IRS when they filed taxes in 2014 because somebody already had filed taxes on their behalf and collected the refunds.

The federal charges don't mention the UNI connection, but according to court records personal information from UNI employees was discovered on a computer linked to Oretekor during a wire fraud and money-laundering investigation in California.

In that case, Oretekor, a Nigerian citizen, was living in Ellenwood, Ga., when authorities started investigating the theft of $312,115 from a California couple's brokerage account, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Northern District of California.

Oretekor and a New York man were indicted in 2014 for stealing money from multiple victims through an email takeover scam and 'Nigerian Fraud” scheme.

The California indictment shows Oretekor and his co-defendant sent victim's 'phishing” emails to capture their usernames and account passwords. When victims clicked on the link in the phishing emails it sent them to a fraudulent website and when they logged in their usernames and passwords were captured, which allowed the defendants to access the victims' accounts.

The indictment details how the email takeovers resulted in wire transfers of more than $500,000 from four victims, and an additional $330,000 in attempted transfers.

The California indictment also alleges the defendants used a 'Nigerian scam” against a father and son from New Mexico, stealing more than $200,000. In this scheme, a person usually poses as a current or former high-ranking official from a foreign government and convinces a victim that he will receive a substantial sum of money in return for paying certain 'taxes” or 'fees” needed to release the money.

The indictment shows after the New Mexico victims ran out of money, the defendants got them to unwittingly become 'money mules” - receiving fraudulent money in their bank account and then distributing it as directed by the perpetrators.

Oretekor remains in custody pending trial in California.