Lehigh County Man Pleads Guilty to Scheme That Defrauded Victims of Nearly $2 Million

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Chinedu Ekuma, 45, of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty today before United States District Judge John M. Gallagher on two counts of wire fraud, in connection with a scheme that defrauded victims of nearly $2 million.

The defendant was charged by information earlier this month.

As detailed in court filings and admitted to by the defendant, from about August 2020 through March 2023, Ekuma devised a scheme to defraud victims and to obtain money and property of these victims by materially false pretenses, representations, and promises. The victims were individuals and businesses that intended to make payments to businesses and individuals for personal and/or business reasons.

Ekuma owned entities called Intelaris Solutions, LLC (“Intelaris Solutions”) and Verge Capital (“Verge Capital”), and opened several bank accounts in the name of these entities.

He and others caused the fraud victims to send payments to the Intelaris Solutions and Verge Capital bank accounts, by falsely representing to the victims that those accounts were associated with the businesses and individuals who the victims intended to pay, when, in fact, the Intelaris Solutions and Verge Capital bank accounts were controlled by Ekuma, and Intelaris Solutions and Verge Capital had no legitimate relationship with any of the victims.

As part of the scheme, the defendant and co-schemers created, or caused the creation of, fraudulent documentation that falsely represented that Intelaris Solutions and Verge Capital were entitled to payments from the victims.

After the fraud proceeds were received into the Intelaris Solutions and Verge Capital bank accounts, Ekuma transferred most of the fraud proceeds to other co-schemers and retained other amounts of the fraud proceeds for himself.

In total, Ekuma and the others caused the Intelaris Solutions and Verge Capital bank accounts to receive more than $1.75 million from fraud victims and attempted to cause these accounts to receive over $650,000 more from fraud victims.

The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on March 12 and faces a maximum possible term of 40 years in prison.

The case was investigated by FBI Philadelphia’s Allentown Resident Agency and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Francis Weber.