Tennessee Man Sentenced in Scheme That Hijacked a Nonprofit's Email and Redirected $1.5 Million in Fresno County Payments

Published Nov. 10, 2026. Case status is current as of that date.

The email came from the real account of a Fresno nonprofit's finance director. It told Fresno County that the nonprofit's bank details had changed. According to federal court documents, the people who sent it were not the finance director at all, and more than $1.5 million in county payments went to a bank account opened by a Tennessee man. On Nov. 9, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California announced that Jafaar September Nyangoro, 53, of Franklin, Tennessee, had been sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,178,000 in restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud [1].

Status: Nyangoro pleaded guilty on June 22, 2026, and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston. He has been in custody since his initial appearance on May 29, 2025 [1].

How the scheme worked

According to court documents described in the U.S. Attorney's Office release [1]:

• Sometime before Sept. 14, 2020, Nyangoro, co-defendant Peter Bah Acha, 46, of Berlin, Germany, and others secretly gained control of an email account used by the finance director of a Fresno nonprofit.
• Using that account, they submitted fraudulent invoices to Fresno County for payment by Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer.
• Posing as the finance director, they told the county that the nonprofit's bank account information had changed and that payments should go to an account at a different bank, an account Nyangoro had recently opened.
• Believing they were dealing with the real nonprofit, county employees updated the bank information.
• Between Sept. 24 and Oct. 13, 2020, the county sent several ACH transfers totaling more than $1.5 million to Nyangoro's account instead of the nonprofit's.
• The conspirators communicated by several means, including WhatsApp. On Oct. 16, 2020, after Regions Bank reversed some of the transfers for suspected fraud, Nyangoro sent a WhatsApp message that prosecutors quoted: "We're in deep s***. The last 3 transactions from County of Fresno have been reversed. Please call me ASAP! … There's honor code among thieves. Let them tell us exactly what went wrong with these last 3 transactions."

The release does not explain how the $1,178,000 restitution figure was calculated, though it notes that the bank reversed some of the transfers. The release does not name the nonprofit or any county employee, and we do not either.

The people charged and their status

Jafaar September Nyangoro, 53, Franklin, Tenn. Pleaded guilty June 22, 2026, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud; sentenced (announced Nov. 9, 2026) to 3 years 10 months in prison and $1,178,000 restitution [1].

Peter Bah Acha, 46, Berlin, Germany. Named in the release as a co-defendant. The release does not state his current status (whether he has been arrested, has appeared in court, or has entered a plea). We have not found an official update on him. Unless and until convicted, he is presumed innocent. Status pending.

The FBI investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney David L. Gappa prosecuted the case [1].

Why this matters beyond county government

This is business email compromise in its purest form: no malware on the victim's own computers and no fake website, just a trusted sender's real email account saying "our bank details changed." The same trick hits small businesses, landlords, homebuyers at closing, and anyone who pays a contractor by bank transfer. Because the message comes from a real account the payer has used before, it passes the "does this look like them?" test.

The defense is a process, not a judgment call: any change in where money goes gets verified by phone, using a number you already had on file.

Red flags

General warning signs, not claims about any person beyond what the court record shows:

• An email, even from a known contact's real address, saying bank or payment details have changed.
• The new account is at a different bank or in a different name from past payments.
• The change arrives just before a large payment or a closing date.
• The sender avoids phone calls or supplies a new phone number in the same email.
• Several invoices arrive close together after a long gap.

What to do if you're targeted

• Call to confirm any payment change, using a phone number from your own records or the organization's official website, never one in the email.
• Require two people to approve changes to vendor bank details in your accounting system.
• If you have already sent money, call your bank right away and ask it to recall or reverse the transfer. In this case, the bank reversed some transfers after spotting suspected fraud. Then file a complaint at ic3.gov.
• If your email account was taken over, change passwords, turn on multi-factor authentication, check for forwarding rules you didn't create, and warn your contacts.
• Report fraud to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Case status (as of Nov. 10, 2026)

Defendant	Court	Status	Source
Jafaar September Nyangoro, 53, Franklin, Tenn.	U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California (Judge Jennifer L. Thurston)	Pleaded guilty June 22, 2026, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud; sentenced to 3 years 10 months and $1,178,000 restitution (announced Nov. 9, 2026); in custody since May 29, 2025	[1]
Peter Bah Acha, 46, Berlin, Germany	U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California	Co-defendant; current status not stated in release; presumed innocent; status pending	[1]

Statuses can change. The release does not give a case number.

Sources

1. U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California, "Tennessee man sentenced for conspiracy to defraud Fresno County," Nov. 9, 2026. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/tennessee-man-sentenced-conspiracy-defraud-fresno-county

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