Nigerian ‘tech queen’ Sapphire Egemasi arrested in U.S. over multimillion-dollar internet fraud, money laundering

Sapphire Egemasi, a Nigerian programmer once praised as a rising star in the tech world, is now facing the possibility of over 20 years behind bars in the United States after being arrested by the FBI for her alleged role in a massive internet fraud scheme.

Dubbed the “tech queen” for her software development projects and activity on platforms like Devpost, Egemasi was arrested around April 10, 2025, in the Bronx, New York. She was apprehended alongside several alleged accomplices, including Samuel Kwadwo Osei—believed to be the leader of the syndicate.

According to U.S. federal authorities, the syndicate is accused of defrauding multiple American government agencies out of millions of dollars through sophisticated internet scams and money laundering operations. The alleged crimes reportedly occurred between September 2021 and February 2023.

The arrest follows a federal grand jury indictment filed in 2024, detailing a series of coordinated cyber fraud operations that targeted pandemic relief funds, government contracts, and other sensitive financial programs.

According to court documents sighted by Peoples Gazette, the Nigerian national and her co-defendants, who are Ghanaians, conspired to defraud the city of Kentucky millions of dollars, with Ms Egemasi’s role being to register and design spoof websites of U.S. government institutions to steal login credentials.

Officials noted that Ms Egemasi had lived in Cambridge, United Kingdom, until her arrest.

It is believed that she met her Ghanaian co-conspirators when she was living in the West African nation years ago and subsequently became the tech expert for the fraud syndicate that operated both in the United States and Nigeria.

She was also responsible for helping the gang redirect stolen funds to accounts controlled by the fraudsters through wire transfers.

Retrieved text messages confirmed that the group had once rerouted $965,000 in stolen funds from the city of Kentucky to a PNC Bank account in August 2022.

During the same period, the gang also diverted $330,000, another chunk of money stolen from the city, into an account at Bank of America.

To conceal the true source of her wealth, the defendant claimed to have held several positions, primarily internships, at multinational companies such as British Petroleum, H&M, and Zara.

Ms Egemasi is known among her social media followers, especially on LinkedIn, as a ‘tech queen’. She regularly flaunted her expensive lifestyle, which was apparently paid for by her ill-gotten gains online.

In recent years, she started posting pictures of her leisurely trips to different countries, including Greece, Portugal and other prime tourist destinations.

Meanwhile, she is currently in custody with her co-conspirators awaiting trial in Lexington, Kentucky, where they each face up to 20 years’ imprisonment, thousands of dollars in fines and potential deportation back to their respective countries upon completion of sentences.

(PeoplesGazette)