A Nigerian national, Okezie Bonaventure Ogbata, 36, was sentenced on Friday to 97 months in U.S. federal prison for orchestrating a $6 million transnational inheritance fraud scheme that targeted more than 400 elderly and vulnerable Americans.
According to court documents, Ogbata was part of a criminal network that mailed fake letters to victims across the United States, falsely claiming they were entitled to multimillion-dollar inheritances from deceased relatives in Spain. The letters purported to come from a Spanish bank and instructed recipients to pay various fees, such as taxes and delivery charges, before receiving their funds.
Instead, victims were manipulated into wiring money through a complex laundering network involving other duped Americans who unknowingly helped funnel the cash to Ogbata and his associates. No inheritance funds were ever disbursed.
In his guilty plea, Ogbata admitted to personally defrauding over $6 million from the victims. The U.S. Department of Justice described the case as a major success in tackling transnational fraud, made possible through international cooperation with law enforcement agencies in Portugal, Spain, the UK, and Europol.
“The long arm of the American justice system has no limits when it comes to reaching fraudsters who prey on our nation’s most vulnerable,” said U.S. Attorney Hayden P. Byrne for the Southern District of Florida.
“The Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch will continue to pursue and bring to justice transnational criminals, wherever they are located,” added Acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov M. Roth.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with prosecution led by attorneys from the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
Authorities from the U.S. Office of International Affairs and Europol also provided crucial assistance.
The U.S. Department of Justice urges anyone over the age of 60 who may have been a victim of financial fraud to contact the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311) for help in reporting and recovering from such crimes.
