A 36-year-old Nigerian national, Okezie Ogbata, has been sentenced to 97 months jail term in the United States for his role in a $6 million transnational inheritance fraud scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United States Department of Justice disclosed this in a statement released on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ogbata was found to be a member of a group of fraudsters that sent personalised letters to elderly people across the United States for several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scheme defrauded over 400 individuals, mostly elderly or vulnerable, resulting in losses of more than $6 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The letters falsely claimed that the sender was a representative of a bank in Spain and that the recipient was entitled to receive a multimillion-dollar inheritance left for the recipient by a family member who had died overseas years before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ogbata pleaded guilty to the charges and admitted to defrauding over $6m from more than 400 victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to court documents, Ogbata and his co-conspirators deceived victims by insisting that, before receiving their supposed inheritance, they were required to pay various fees, such as delivery charges, taxes, and other costs, to avoid government scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOgbata and his co-conspirators collected money sent in response to the fraudulent letters through a complex web of U.S.-based former victims, whom the defendants convinced to receive and forward funds to them or their associates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVictims who sent money never received any purported inheritance funds,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statement quoted acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Roth of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Division, as describing the case as a testament to the critical role of international collaboration in tackling transnational crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to thank our U.S. law enforcement partners, as well as those who assisted across the globe, including the Portuguese Judicial Police and Public Prosecution Service of Portugal, for their outstanding contributions to this case,\u201d Roth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, the U.S. Attorney Hayden Byrne for the Southern District of Florida emphasised the determination of American authorities to pursue fraudsters globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe long arm of the American justice system has no limits when it comes to reaching fraudsters who prey on our nation\u2019s most vulnerable populations, including the elderly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m \u201cWe will not allow transnational criminals to steal money from the public we serve,\u201d Byrne said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acting Postal Inspector in Charge Steven Hodges of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Miami Division echoed the sentiment, \u201cThe USPIS has a long history of protecting American citizens from these types of schemes and bringing those responsible to justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cToday\u2019s sentencing is a testament to the dedicated partnership between the Department of Justice\u2019s Consumer Protection Branch, HSI, and USPIS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Special Agent in Charge Francisco Burrola of Homeland Security Investigations Arizona condemned the exploitation of the elderly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s inconceivable to imagine any human being robbing from those who\u2019ve spent a lifetime working and building a life and then are duped out of it all,\u201d he said. \u201cTogether with our law enforcement partners, we will not tolerate this kind of behaviour; we will bring justice to those who have wronged and stolen from so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ogbata\u2019s sentencing comes just days after the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the arrest of 22 Nigerian nationals in connection with a series of sextortion schemes, highlighting ongoing efforts to combat cyber-enabled fraud targeting U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A 36-year-old Nigerian national, Okezie Ogbata, has been sentenced to 97 months jail term in the United States for his role in a $6 million transnational inheritance fraud scheme. The United States Department of Justice disclosed this in a statement released on Monday. Ogbata was found to be a member of a group of fraudsters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":86608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-88734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-court-room-news"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/lawyer-judge.jpg?fit=681%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88735,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88734\/revisions\/88735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}