Nigeria Self-styled ‘Tech queen,’ Saphire Egemesi Arrested for Internet Fraud in US, Face 20-year Jail Term

Nigerian tech enthusiast Sapphire Egemasi, who refers to herself as a “tech queen,” has been arrested by the FBI in the United States on charges of internet fraud. Accused of defrauding multiple U.S. government departments, Egemasi faces a potential 20-year prison sentence if convicted.
Egemasi, known for her presence on Devpost, was apprehended in April in the Bronx, New York, alongside other alleged co-conspirators, including Samuel Kwadwo Osei, reportedly the leader of the syndicate. Their arrests followed a federal grand jury indictment in 2024, charging them with multiple counts of internet fraud and money laundering for offenses allegedly committed between September 2021 and February 2023.
According to investigators, Egemasi played a key role in the scheme by creating spoof websites that mimicked official U.S. government domains to steal login credentials and facilitate the transfer of stolen funds. Records of text messages indicate that in August 2022, the syndicate rerouted $965,000 stolen from Kentucky into a PNC Bank account. Around the same time, an additional $330,000 was transferred into a Bank of America account.
Egemasi and her co-defendants are currently in federal custody, awaiting trial in Lexington, Kentucky.