US Court
A United States court has sentenced a Nigerian, Ehis Lawrence Akhimie, to over eight years in prison for his role in a transnational inheritance fraud scheme that defrauded more than 400 elderly victims of over $6m.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, in a statement on Monday, said Akhimie, 41, was sentenced on September 11 to 97 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges.
According to court filings as indicated in the statement, Akhimie and his accomplices sent personalised letters to victims in the U.S., posing as bank officials in Spain. The letters claimed the recipients were entitled to multimillion-dollar inheritances from relatives who had purportedly died overseas.
Victims were told that before they could access the inheritance, they had to pay various fees, including delivery charges, taxes, and other payments to avoid “government scrutiny”. The funds, however, were siphoned through a network of intermediaries, including former fraud victims in the U.S., who were manipulated into acting as conduits for the syndicate. Punch
