$2m fraud: Nigerian risks 20 years US jail term

A suspect

A United Kingdom-based Nigerian, Olamide Shanu, is at risk of a 20-year jail term following his extradition to the United States over his indictment in a $2 million fraud.

The US Department of Justice disclosed in a statement on its website on Thursday that 34-year-old Shanu was arraigned before a US Magistrate Court on Wednesday following his extradition.

The DoJ noted that the Lagos State indigene was arraigned on an eight-count charge bordering on “wire fraud conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit interstate communications with intent to extort, and cyberstalking.”

Others are “conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering conspiracy, extortion, interstate communications with intent to commit extortion, and cyberstalking.”

According to the prosecutor, the suspect, alongside other conspirators, posed as females on social media and persuaded their victims to send explicit images of themselves. Once they received the photos, they resorted to threatening the victims.

The statement read, “According to the indictment, Shanu and his conspirators posed as females on social media and persuaded their victims, typically males, to send sexual images of themselves.

“The indictment alleges that once the victims sent the explicit images, the conspirators threatened to send the explicit images to the victims’ friends and families unless the victim paid money. Punch