FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A man arrested by U.S. Marshals in Broward County Wednesday was involved in a multi-million-dollar scheme targeting businesses in South Florida and across the globe by compromising their email systems, according to a federal indictment made public on Friday.
Kelvin Nkwantabisa, 31, of Atlanta — also known by the aliases “Kevin Brown” and “KO” — remained held in the Broward Main Jail Friday as he faced six federal charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
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Also facing various charges in the case, being prosecuted in the Southern District of Florida, are Justice Amoh, also known as “Samuel Andrews,” of The Bronx, New York; John Jouissance, of Canal Winchester, Ohio; and Leshea Moore, also known as “Deborah Green,” of Acworth, Georgia.
The federal indictment also mentions unnamed co-conspirators.
It states that co-conspirators compromised victims’ business email accounts “for the purpose of monitoring and intercepting emails, specifically those discussing wire transfer payments.”
Pretending to be legitimate business partners, the co-conspirators sent emails “containing false and fraudulent requests for payment and wire instructions to victims” that induced the victims to transfer money into bank accounts the group controlled, prosecutors allege.
The indictment lists five victims of the scheme — all unidentified — ranging from a corporation in Coral Springs, to a company in Suffolk, England and an investor in Auckland, New Zealand.
Those entities wired more than $7 million to bank accounts controlled by the quartet and other co-conspirators.
The group facing charges, as well as their co-conspirators, opened “shell companies and bank accounts in the names of those shell companies for the purpose of receiving stolen victim funds,” prosecutors allege.
Authorities said the con went on from as early as August 2022 and continued through this March.
The Coral Springs company alone lost more than $1.3 million to the scheme, according to the indictment.
Nkwantabisa appeared in Fort Lauderdale federal court on Thursday, according to court records. He’s scheduled for an arraignment and detention hearing in front of a magistrate judge next Thursday.
Local 10 News has contacted his listed attorney, Miami criminal defense lawyer Sherri Romano, seeking comment on the case.
According to federal court records, Amoh and Jouissance were also taken into custody in New York and Ohio, respectively, this week.
Moore was not in custody as of Friday, authorities said.
All face decades in federal prison if convicted.