From Cambridge to Custody: Digital Trail Leads to Arrest of Nigerian 'Tech Queen' in Multi-Million Dollar Scam

 

A high-profile Nigerian tech enthusiast, Sapphire Egemasi, has landed in the crosshairs of U.S. federal law enforcement after her alleged involvement in a sweeping internet fraud and money laundering operation that targeted U.S. government agencies. Once hailed as a rising tech innovator with an impressive digital portfolio, Egemasi was arrested in early April in Bronx, New York, after an extensive cross-border investigation spearheaded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities say the operation to capture Egemasi began months before her arrest, tracing a digital trail that stretched across multiple continents. Egemasi had carefully constructed an online presence that projected success and technical mastery. Her professional profiles on platforms like Devpost and LinkedIn portrayed her as a savvy programmer with global experience, supposedly having interned at international giants such as British Petroleum, H&M, and Zara.

Behind the scenes, investigators claim, was a starkly different narrative—one involving fraudulent wire transfers, fake government websites, and ties to a West African cybercrime syndicate. A 2024 federal indictment linked her to a sophisticated conspiracy that defrauded U.S. municipalities, including a staggering theft of nearly $1.3 million from Kentucky state accounts between 2021 and 2023.

Surveillance began to close in after cybersecurity teams flagged a cluster of spoofed government portals mimicking federal login pages. The fake sites, hosted on servers tied to foreign IP addresses, were traced to a network of domains that, upon deeper forensic analysis, were linked back to an account in Egemasi’s name.

Digital communications between Egemasi and co-conspirators offered further incriminating detail. Investigators obtained text messages showing coordinated activity in August 2022, when the group rerouted $965,000 from the Kentucky state budget into a PNC Bank account. That same month, another $330,000 was funneled through Bank of America, using similarly deceptive tactics.

Federal agents pieced together her movements by following a blend of IP address logs, cryptocurrency wallet transfers, and even airline travel records. Egemasi, who had been living in Cambridge, United Kingdom, at the time, traveled to the United States under the radar. Surveillance flagged her final location in the Bronx, where she was taken into custody around April 10, 2025, in a coordinated operation.

Her arrest came alongside that of Samuel Kwadwo Osei, a Ghanaian national alleged to have masterminded the fraud ring. Osei and other syndicate members had long been on the radar of international cybercrime watchdogs, but it was Egemasi’s involvement that helped break the case open. According to court documents, she acted as the group’s lead technologist, overseeing the development and deployment of deceptive online infrastructure.

Authorities say she played a pivotal role in ensuring stolen credentials from the spoof sites were used to access restricted systems and facilitate the illicit transfers. The fake portals often included near-perfect replicas of real U.S. government websites, complete with authentic-looking seals and multi-factor login forms.

U.S. prosecutors have painted a picture of Egemasi as a digital shapeshifter. Her LinkedIn and Instagram profiles bore the hallmarks of a young tech entrepreneur: beachside selfies in Santorini, café posts in Lisbon, and captions celebrating "grind culture" and “boss moves.” Investigators now allege those vacations and luxury experiences were funded using money stolen from public coffers.

Despite presenting herself as a remote software developer and hackathon competitor, Egemasi is said to have funneled much of the stolen funds through shell companies and third-party accounts. Her efforts to disguise the origin of her wealth—by citing fictitious internships and freelance contracts—were ultimately unravelled by inconsistencies in her online resume and financial records.

Egemasi and her alleged accomplices are being held in federal detention in Lexington, Kentucky, where they await trial. Prosecutors are seeking the maximum penalty for each of the multiple counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

If convicted, the former tech star faces over 20 years in prison, substantial restitution orders, and likely deportation to Nigeria once her sentence is served.

The case highlights the increasing sophistication of cybercriminals and the growing reach of U.S. federal agencies in tracking digital suspects across borders. What began as a few suspicious logins ultimately led to an international manhunt—and the arrest of one of Africa’s most talked-about young tech talents.