A Nigerian named Okezie Bonaventure Ogbata, was on Friday, 25 April sentenced to 97 months in prison for his role in a transnational inheritance fraud scheme, reports thegazellenews.com
This is coming less than a few days after the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, announced the arrest of 22 Nigerians accused of orchestrating a series of sextortion schemes.
The US Department of Justice Public Affairs, who made this disclosure in a statement issued on Monday, 28 April, 2025, said Ogbata was a member of a group of fraudsters that sent personalized letters to elderly victims in the US over the course of several years
The department said that according to court documents the, “36-year-old Nigerian and his co-conspirators collected money victims sent in response to the fraudulent letters.”
“Victims who sent money never received any purported inheritance funds.”
In pleading guilty, Ogbata admitted to defrauding over $6 million from more than 400 victims.
However, most of the victims were elderly or otherwise vulnerable people.
