Tennessee man pleads guilty in Fresno County fraud scheme

Fresno County came within reach of losing more than $1 million when a scammer helped steer county payments away from a Fresno nonprofit’s account and into an account he had recently opened. The scheme unraveled only after Regions Bank flagged suspicious transfers and reversed part of the money flow, turning the case into a sharp reminder that public dollars can be vulnerable long before anyone sees a stolen check or a hacked county server.

Jafaar September Nyangoro, 53, of Franklin, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a federal case tied to the County of Fresno. Prosecutors said the fraud began sometime before Sept. 14, 2020, when Nyangoro, co-defendant Peter Bah Acha of Berlin, Germany, and others secretly took control of an email account used by the finance director of a Fresno nonprofit. From there, they used the compromised account to send fraudulent invoices to Fresno County and direct payments to a different bank account.

Between Sept. 24, 2020, and Oct. 13, 2020, the County of Fresno initiated several Automated Clearing House transfers totaling more than $1.5 million. Federal prosecutors said that money was routed to an account Nyangoro had recently opened at another bank. On Oct. 16, 2020, Regions Bank reversed some of the transfers because of suspected fraud, and Nyangoro then sent a WhatsApp message saying the last three County of Fresno transactions had been reversed.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys David L. Gappa and Cody Chapple are prosecuting it. Nyangoro is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston on Sept. 21, 2026. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution.

The financial damage to Fresno County was softened but not erased. County officials said they recovered $112,000 after the fraud was discovered, and about $875,000 was covered by county insurance. The county also said it put new fraud-prevention processes in place and added staff training after the scheme, an acknowledgment that the attack did not begin at a courthouse counter or in a conference room, but inside an email account that had been quietly compromised.