The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has named Nigerian tech entrepreneur, Mr Izunna Okonkwo, as a co-conspirator in an alleged insider trading and money-laundering scheme said to have generated about $41 million (N59.5 billion) in unlawful profits over five years.
Okonkwo, 30, a co-founder of the Lagos-based tech start-up, Pastel, and a 2023 Forbes Africa 30-under-30 honouree, was identified in court filings submitted to the U.S. District Court for New Jersey, according to reports by Peoples Gazette.
Investigators alleged that Okonkwo traded in stocks and securities using material non-public information passed to him through an acquaintance, Mr Saad Shoukat, who reportedly obtained the confidential intelligence from Mr Gyunho Justin Kim, an investment banker at Citibank.
FBI special agent Antony Belitti, in a complaint filed on Nov. 24, said Okonkwo and Shoukat exchanged encrypted messages about acquisition deals ahead of their public announcement, including the multi-billion-dollar takeovers of Immunomedics, Five Prime, Sierra, GBT, Reata and Immunogen.
The FBI said Shoukat was granted access to Okonkwo’s brokerage accounts under a profit-sharing arrangement which entitled the Nigerian entrepreneur to 50 per cent of illicit proceeds. Investigators also traced logins to the accounts to a London residence linked to Okonkwo.
From the Gilead acquisition of Immunomedics in 2020 alone, Shoukat, Kim and their associates reportedly made $4.9 million, while Okonkwo allegedly earned $2.3 million, with a relative receiving over $465,000.
Okonkwo was also said to have made significant profits from other takeover deals, including $166,000 from Five Prime, $370,000 from Sierra, $3.5 million from GBT, and $4.7 million following Biogen’s acquisition of Reata in 2023. Another $2.9 million was reportedly earned after AbbVie’s acquisition of Immunogen.
Federal prosecutors told U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hammer that combined profits attributed to Shoukat, Okonkwo and other individuals totalled at least $41 million.
Mr Kim is currently facing six counts of insider trading, wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly leaking confidential Citibank intelligence over several years.
It remained unclear if Okonkwo had been detained as at the time of filing the report. Court documents described him as a dual Nigerian-American citizen with business interests in Lagos and Atlanta.
Online records show that Okonkwo, alongside co-founders Olamide Oladeji and Abuzar Royesh, established Pastel in 2021, raising $5.5 million in seed funding by 2023.