Nigerian man pleads guilty in $6m U.S. inheritance scam, faces 20 years prison
A Nigerian nationwide, Ehis Akhimie, has pleaded responsible in a U.S. federal court docket for his involvement in an world fraud scheme that centered a complete bunch of aged Americans with counterfeit inheritance claims, main to losses exceeding $6 million.
The 41-yr-former entered his responsible plea on June 17 sooner than U.S. District Rob Roy Okay. Altman in Miami, Florida, in line with a press liberate launched Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Place of work of Public Affairs.
Court paperwork reward that Akhimie was section of a coordinated syndicate that sent personalised letters to aged folks across the US, falsely informing them they had been heirs to multimillion-buck inheritances from alleged distant relatives in Spain. The letters, on the total printed on faux bank letterheads, rapid recipients to pay varied fees, including offer costs and taxes, as a prerequisite for receiving the supposed funds. On the different hand, no inheritances had been ever paid.
“These fraudsters had been preying on the hopes and vulnerabilities of aged Americans,” stated Assistant Approved expert Frequent Brett Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
In his confession, Akhimie acknowledged collaborating with an world network of fraudsters and U.S.-basically basically basically based accomplices, some of whom had been ragged victims coerced into acting as money mules to receive and launder illicit proceeds. The scheme defrauded over 400 victims, many of whom had been aged and isolated.
The investigation, which involved the U.S. Postal Inspection Provider, Fatherland Safety Investigations, and legislation enforcement companies within the UK, Spain, Portugal, and Nigeria, successfully dismantled the fraud network. The U.S. Department of Affirm’s Diplomatic Safety Provider and Place of work of Global Affairs additionally contributed to securing arrests and extraditions.
“The Justice Department’s User Safety Department will proceed to pursue, prosecute and divulge to justice transnational criminals accountable for defrauding U.S. patrons, wherever they would be found,” Shumate stated. He praised world cooperation as excessive to addressing such crimes.
Akhimie is amongst plenty of folks convicted in reference to the rip-off. Others encompass Ezennia Neboh, sentenced to 128 months in penal complicated after extradition from Spain; Kennedy Ikponmwosa, sentenced to 97 months; and Emmanuel Samuel, Jerry Chucks Ozor, and Iheanyichukwu Jonathan Abraham, sentenced to 82, 87, and 90 months respectively within the UK. Amos Ezemma, paroled from Nigeria, was sentenced to 90 months in July 2024, whereas Okezie Bonaventure Ogbata, extradited from Portugal, purchased a 97-month sentence.
Bladismir Rojo, Appearing Postal Inspector in Charge of the USPIS Miami Division, reaffirmed the agency’s dedication to keeping American patrons from transnational fraud.
Akhimie faces up to Two decades in penal complicated and is scheduled to be sentenced later this yr. The Justice Department told families and folks to remain vigilant and myth suspicious inheritance claims, noting that such scams disproportionately maintain an impact on susceptible populations.
