The Story Of Obinwanne Okeke’s Fall And What Young Nigerians Can Learn
Obinwanne Okeke aka Invictus Obi was the poster boy for hard work, diligence and a reference point in entrepreneurship for young Africans. In 2016, when he was 28, Forbes Africa named him as one of Africa’s ‘Most Promising Entrepreneurs’ under age 30. African youths watched and drew inspiration from his rag-to-riches story. Hard work, he said, took him that far.
But it was all a hoax.
On Tuesday February 16, 2021, Obi was jailed for 10 years by an Eastern Virginia District Court in the United States for engaging in a multi-year global business email and computer hacking scheme that caused a staggering $11 million in losses to his victims. His reputation has now gone from one of Africa’s most celebrated young CEOs to an internet fraudster who will spend years in jail.
Here is how Obi went from a promising, legitimate entrepreneur to becoming a convict.
On Friday August 16 2019, reports of Obi’s arrest in the U.S sent shockwaves across Africa. Reports say he was picked up by FBI when he landed in the U.S to be with his wife who had just been delivered of their baby.
Court documents say Obi, 33, operated a group of companies known as the Invictus Group based in Nigeria and elsewhere.
“From approximately 2015 to 2019, Okeke and others engaged in a conspiracy to conduct various computer-based frauds. The conspirators obtained and compiled the credentials of hundreds of victims, including victims in the Eastern District of Virginia,” court documents read.
“As part of the scheme, Okeke and other conspirators engaged in an email compromise scheme targeting Unatrac Holding Limited, the export sales office for Caterpillar heavy industrial and farm equipment.”
Prior to his arrest, he was the founder of Invictus Group of Companies, an investment conglomerate dealing in construction, agriculture, oil and gas, renewable energy, telecoms, and real estate with presence in five African countries.
A few weeks after his arrest, the FBI released a list of 78 Nigerians allegedly involved in internet fraud in the U.S and embarked on a massive clampdown that led to the arrest of many of the suspects within a year. It is widely believed that Obi’s confession in custody led to the arrests.
While he was being investigated in the U.S, in November 2019, a Federal High Court in Lagos, ordered the forfeiture of N280.5 million stashed in his companies’ bank accounts.
His company’s website was taken down but a deeper search by Neusroom into the archive of the deactivated website revealed that his mother, Celine Okeke, was an Executive Director on the board of the company.
According to Obi, who was raised in a polygamous home with 16 other children in Ukpor village, Nnewi, Anambra state, Celine was a teacher and his father’s fourth wife.
Employees who identified with the company on LinkedIn may have moved on with their lives, but one of them identified as Francisca Asuquo was one of those who wrote to the U.S judge Rebecca Smith who sent Obi to jail.
In her letter, Francisca had pleaded for mercy and claimed Obi “is really upset and sorry about what he has done and wishes to spend more time with his new born child and family hoping to be a good father-figure that will excel at raising his family uprightly.”
In June 2020, Obi pleaded guilty to the allegation of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and agreed to cooperate with investigators, in a bid to reduce his sentencing.
His arrest and eventual conviction lifted the lid on how the young CEO amassed the wealth that earned him a prominent spot on the cover of Forbes magazine in 2016. He swaggered into continental prominence that same year when the magazine featured him among Africa’s 30 under 30 ‘Most Promising Entrepreneurs’.
“Poverty, impoverished childhood and hunger for trying to create wealth and resources for my immediate community pushed me into working hard,” he told the BBC in 2018.
The Computer Science graduate from Monash University in South Africa, said this also pushed him to start his own business at 16 when he left high school, barely a year after losing his politician father.
The soft spoken con artist with a Master’s degree in Politics and Counter Terrorism from Australia, picked Invictus, his moniker and company name, from one of Nelson Mandela’s favorite poems by William Ernest Henley.
Invictus is a Latin word for unconquerable and the poem itself talked about the undefeated and unconquerable soul of a hard worker, from an impoverished background, who will not give up.
Young Nigerians make up over 70% of the country’s growing population, and most of them are driven by a passion to succeed against all odds. Obi’s success was one of the inspirations for many that they too can ‘make it’ despite the odds. But his downfall, having been investigated, tried, and convicted, should sound a firm warning that crime is not an option.
Had his public image as a hardworking entrepreneur and a role model not turned out to be a hoax, Obi was already warming up to run for a political office. He told the BBC in 2018 that he has interest in politics and that was one of the reasons he took a master’s programme in Political Science.
Obi, who wormed his way into the heart of many Africans with his motivational talks and hoax business success, will spend 10 years in jail.
