U.S. Dept of Justice seeks extradition of 5 suspected Nigerian fraudsters

One suspect has already been extradited from the U.K.

The U.S. Department of Justice has unsealed an indictment against six Nigerian fraudsters on charges of targeting elderly victims.

The suspect are identified as Ezennia Peter Neboh, 48, Kennedy Ikponmwosa, 51, and Prince Amos Okey Ezemma, 49, of Madrid, Spain; and Iheanyichukwu Jonathan Abraham, 44, Emmanuel Samuel, 39, and Jerry Chucks Ozor, 43, of London, face federal charges in Miami.

Neboh, Ikponmwosa, Abraham, Samuel, and Ozor were arrested in April 2022 by authorities in Madrid and London, based on an indictment filed in the Southern District of Florida, and have remained incarcerated since then. Samuel made his initial appearance in Miami today, while Okey Ezemma remains at large.

The group is accused of operating an inheritance fraud scheme over the course of more than five years. They allegedly sent personalized letters to elderly consumers in the U.S., falsely claiming 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 purportedly had died years before in Spain.

Victims were told that, before they could receive their purported inheritance, they were required to send money for processing and avoid questioning from government authorities. Victims sent money to the defendants through a complex web of U.S.-based former victims, whom the defendants convinced to serve as money mules.

Not surprisingly, the victims who sent money never received their purported inheritance funds.

All the defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, as well as mail fraud and wire fraud. Emmanuel Samuel made his initial court appearance today at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Neboh, Ikponmwosa, Abraham, and Ozor remain in extradition proceedings. If convicted, Samuel faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

“Schemes that prey on the elderly are particularly insidious,” Principal Deputy Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said. “The Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch will pursue and prosecute transnational criminals who defraud U.S. consumers, wherever they are located.”