CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Nigerian man ran an online marketplace where people could buy and sell stolen bank account and credit card information, along with compromised usernames and passwords from major online retailers like Amazon, eBay and PayPal, according to federal prosecutors.
Blessing Adeleke, 31, is charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud in a 17-count indictment. The charges were filed in 2020 but unsealed Friday after authorities arrested Adeleke in Ghana, according to court filings and a spokesman for the federal prosecutors in Cleveland.
Adeleke was extradited to the United States and pleaded not guilty Friday during a hearing in front of U.S. District Magistrate Judge Jonathan Greenberg. Greenberg ordered Adeleke held in custody without bond.
Adeleke and two others not named in the indictment ran the online market place called Shad0w.info from January 2014 through October 2016, according to court records. The other two administrators hailed from the Netherlands and Glendale, West Virginia.
Ten others worked in the organization, including Kylie Harlow, of Clymer, Pennsylvania, who pleaded guilty last year to her role in the operation. U.S. District Judge James Gwin sentenced her to three years on probation.
The marketplace took compromised online account information from websites like Amazon, Apple, Choice Hotels, Dell, eBay, eHarmony, Macy’s, Marriott, Match, PayPal, Target, Uber, UPS and Walmart, among others, according to the indictment.
They sold the information to people who bought items online and sometimes returned them to brick-and-mortar stores for cash. Other times, group members used information to steal directly from bank accounts, court records say.
The network stole information from people several people in Northeast Ohio, including Painesville, Mayfield Heights, Lakewood, Sheffield Lake, Sylvania, North Royalton, Avon, Parma and Medina, court records say. The group stole $19,100 from a Pepper Pike resident, the indictment said.
Others targeted by the scheme lived in New York City; St. Augustine, Florida; San Bernadino and Los Angeles, California and Denver. The Kiwanis Club of Vashon Island in Washington was also stolen from, prosecutors said.
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