FIVE NIGERIANS JAILED 159 YEARS IN U.S. FOR $17M FRAUD

A United States court has sentenced five Nigerians to a combined jail term of over 159 years for defrauding over 100 Americans, companies and government entities to the tune of 17 million dollars. A statement on the US Department of Justice website, signed by the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, Ray Combs, noted that the defendants, Damilola Kumapayi, Sandra Iribhogbe, Edgal Iribhogbe, Chidindu Okeke and Chiagoziem Okeke, were part of a transnational organised crime group. Following their arrest, they were arraigned on multiple counts bordering on conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering, which they pleaded guilty to. Upon their guilty plea, they were sentenced by U.S. District Judge, Amos Mazzant, to different years of jail terms. According to Combs, the defendants began the scheme in 2017 and targeted elderly and vulnerable people by deploying several schemes to obtain money from their victims and, in some cases, their life savings. Combs disclosed that the defendants coordinated how to extract money from their victims, and then how to disguise, disburse and launder the money once they successfully defrauded their victims. He added that once funds were obtained from their victims, the defendants laundered the money through a network of various bank accounts and sent money to bank accounts, co-conspirators and businesses located in Africa and Asia.

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