Founder of Invictus Group, Obinwanne Okeke, has hired a Nigerian lawyer to lead his defence against fraud charges filed by US authorities.
According to court documents seen by Premium Times, the Forbes-rated entrepreneur hired John Iweanoge based in Washington DC.
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Mr Okeke, 31, is being accused of conspiring to commit fraud of over $11 million.
Mr Iweanoge replaces Rahul Sharma, a public defender, who was appointed by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia because Okeke did not appear with his lawyer at his initial hearing on August 9.
Okeke, popularly known as Invictus Obi, also did not give his plea on his arraignment.
Iweanoge runs The Iweanoges Firm and has been practising law in the US since 1993, according to the firm’s website.
Okeke was arrested on August 6 in Dulles, Virginia, after a criminal complaint was filed against him by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
His arrest came after representatives of Unatrac Holdings Limited filed a complaint in June 2018 for allegedly being victimised.
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FBI said it received complaint from the company that Okeke gained unauthorised access to the e-mail account of its chief financial officer and authorised a series of fictitious invoices to the tune of $11 million.
The authorities also discovered that Okeke had defrauded an American show manufacturer as part of a business email compromise (BEC) scheme that he and other accomplices had coordinated.
