Nigerian tech enthusiast Sapphire Egemasi has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for her alleged involvement in a large-scale fraud scheme targeting multiple US government agencies.
Egemasi, who operates a Devpost account and is known online as a “tech queen,” was taken into custody in April 2025 in Bronx, New York, alongside her co-conspirators, including Samuel Kwadwo Osei, the leader of the syndicate.
According to court documents, Egemasi and her co-defendants conspired to defraud the city of Kentucky of millions of dollars between September 2021 and February 2023.
Her role in the scheme involved designing spoof websites impersonating official US government domains to steal login credentials and facilitate the transfer of stolen funds.
Text message records showed that the syndicate rerouted $965,000 stolen from Kentucky into a PNC Bank account in August 2022, and $330,000 was funnelled into a Bank of America account around the same time.
Egemasi allegedly masked her income by claiming internships at multinational companies such as British Petroleum, H&M, and Zara.
Her social media profiles featured photos of lavish vacations to destinations like Greece and Portugal, which prosecutors claimed were funded through illicit proceeds.
The “tech queen” is in federal custody with her co-conspirators, awaiting trial in Lexington, Kentucky, where they face up to 20 years in jail.
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