Larceny suspect to be extradited to Stamford

Cops: Purdue Pharma wire theft strands Nigerian man

STAMFORD — A Nigerian man, caught trying to catch a flight home, is in the process of being extradited from Washington to Stamford, where he will face charges that he illegally intercepted a $30,000 wire transfer from Purdue Pharma, police said.

According to Port of Seattle Police, Emmanuel Mong, 24, of Savannah, Georgia, was trying to catch an Emirates Airlines flight to Nigeria on Dec. 16 at SeattleTacoma International Airport. Seeing there was a felony warrant in his name, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers detained him until police arrived at SeaTac Airport.

According to the report, Stamford police issued a warrant for Mong’s arrest in 2017, charging him with firstdegree larceny, conspiracy to commit firstdegree computer crime and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, with a courtordered appearance bond of $250,000.

Despite his protests that he has never lived in Georgia and claims that he is not the person wanted in the warrant, Mong is being extradited to Stamford.

His Stamford criminal defense attorney, Allan Friedman, said Mong is eager to

clear his name.

“Mr. Mong is looking forward to coming to Stamford and having his day in court and presenting evidence of his innocence,” Friedman said. “We will resolve this matter in court.”

A spokesperson from Purdue Pharma said they had no comment on the matter.

According to Mong’s fourpage arrest affidavit, Sean Coughlin, a Stamford police financial crimes investigator, said Purdue Pharma became the victim of what is known as a “manintheemail scam,” wherein a corporation, usually with business connections to Africa or Asia, have their email systems hacked by a computer virus or some other malware.

In Mong’s arrest affidavit, Coughlin explained that once they hack inside an email system, the fraudsters will monitor company email traffic, learning payment behaviors and relevant executives’ names. Eventually they will direct someone within the company to send a normal accountspayable wire to an account controlled by the fraudsters.

That is exactly what happened in this case, Coughlin said.

Back in April 2017, Purdue Pharma sent a payment of $30,000 for production materials to a Wells Fargo bank account, the affidavit said. But a month later, the company owed the money said it never got the wire.

Police investigated and discovered the account that the money was sent to was located in Savannah, Georgia, the affidavit said.

An internal Purdue Pharma investigation found that the email requesting the money, ostensibly sent by the outside company, could be traced to a Kuwaiti address at the web housing website godaddy.com, and therefore never came from the company actually doing business with Purdue Pharma, the affidavit said.

Results of a search warrant served on Wells Fargo revealed that the account was opened about a month before the wire transfer was made and was closed in May 2017, the same month Purdue Pharma became aware of the theft, the affidavit said.

The search warrant showed the account was registered to Mong. The account also showed a separate incoming wire transfer of $59,000, likely from an additional victim, the arrest warrant said.

When Mong was picked up, he had $3,510 in cash on his person, the Seattle police report said.

It is unclear when Mong will be brought back to Stamford to answer for the charges.