[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

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No. 22-13428 ____________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus ELVIS EGHOSA OGIEKPOLOR,

Defendant-Appellant.

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Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia D.C. Docket No. 1:21-cr-00016-WMR-RDC-1 ____________________ USCA11 Case: 22-13428 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 12/16/2024 Page: 2 of 29

2 Opinion of the Court 22-13428

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, and JILL PRYOR and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judge: Elvis Eghosa Ogiekpolor appeals his convictions for conspir- ing to commit money laundering and 15 counts of money launder- ing. On appeal, he challenges his convictions based on Sixth Amendment and Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3161(b)–(c), viola- tions. After careful consideration, and with the benefit of oral argu- ment, we affirm the district court’s judgment. I. BACKGROUND A. The Fraudulent Scheme The charges in this case arose from business email compro- mise schemes and online romance scams to defraud victims into sending the perpetrators money. A business email compromise scheme involves a “computer intrusion that occurs when an em- ployee of a company is tricked into interacting with an [illegiti- mate] email.” Doc. 56 at 2. 1 After the employee clicks on an attach- ment or link, “malware . . . infects the employee’s email account and/or computer.” Id. The malware allows scammers to access sensitive company information, including login credentials and email correspondence, “which can then be used to defraud the vic- tim company.” Id. In a common form of such a scheme, “[a]fter an initial transfer or wiring instruction is conveyed between legitimate

1 “Doc.” numbers refer to the district court’s docket entries. USCA11 Case: 22-13428 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 12/16/2024 Page: 3 of 29

22-13428 Opinion of the Court 3

parties to [a financial] transaction, the intruder sends a fraudulent follow-up email that appears to be coming from the original legiti- mate sender.” Id. The intruder’s email instructs the victim com- pany to wire funds into a different account—one controlled by the intruder or an accomplice. A romance scam occurs when “an imposter posing as a po- tential paramour” targets vulnerable individuals on dating websites to get them to send money under false pretenses. Id. at 2–3. “Once an online relationship is formed with the victim, the scammer tricks the dating website victim into sending money”—wire trans- fers, checks, or cash—to the scammer or associated individuals. Id. at 3. In this case, the government alleged that Ogiekpolor ran an operation to launder money obtained from business email compro- mise schemes and romance scams. He and co-conspirators work- ing at his direction registered sham corporations and then opened bank accounts in the corporations’ names. They deposited money obtained from the victims of the scams into the