Two Nigerian Nationals Sentenced to Prison for International Scheme That Defrauded Elderly U.S. Victims
Thursday, November 2, 2023
For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs
Two Nigerian nationals – Ezennia Peter Neboh, 48, and Kennedy Ikponmwosa have been sentenced to 128 and 87 months in prison for their roles in a transnational inheritance fraud scheme.
Ezennia Peter Neboh and Kennedy Ikponmwosa were extradited to the United States from Spain for their International fraud Scheme and afterwards sentenced on Thursday, October 2, the Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a release made available to The Daily Crucible.
Five persons were extradited from the United Kingdom and Spain in connection with the matter and they have all been sentenced.
According to court documents, Ezennia Peter was sentenced yesterday, Thursday to 128 months of incarceration.
He was the lead defendant of a group of fraudsters who sent personalized letters to elderly victims in the United States, 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 had died years before in Portugal. Victims were told that before they could receive their purported inheritance, they were required to send money for delivery fees and taxes and were instructed to make other payments. Victims sent money to the defendants through a complex web of U.S.-based former victims.
Ezennia Neboh and his co-conspirators also convinced former victims to receive money from new victims and then instructed those former victims to forward the fraud proceeds to others.
Also, on October 23 this year, the Honorable Kathleen M. Williams sentenced Kennedy Ikponmwosa, to 87 months of imprisonment. Three other co-defendants who were extradited from the United Kingdom had also received prison sentences. On June 21, Judge Williams sentenced Emmanuel Samuel to 82 months in prison; on July 25, Judge Williams sentenced Jerry Chucks Ozor to 87 months in prison; and on August 29, Judge Williams sentenced Iheanyichukwu Jonathan Abraham to 90 months in prison, for their roles in the scheme.
“The Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch will continue to pursue, prosecute and bring to justice transnational criminals responsible for defrauding U.S. consumers,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We thank our colleagues at the Spanish National Police and the Ministry of Justice for assisting with the successful investigation and extradition of these defendants. This prosecution is a testament to the critical role of transnational collaboration in tackling transnational crime.”
“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) has a long tradition of protecting American citizens from these types of schemes and bringing those responsible to justice,” said Inspector in Charge Juan A. Vargas for the USPIS Miami Division. “This result is a testament to the dedicated partnership between the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the USPIS to protect our citizens from these scams.”
“HSI has a long history of aggressively pursuing criminals to ensure that they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Special Agent in Charge Scott Brown for HSI Arizona. “When criminals indiscriminately target the elderly or otherwise vulnerable, the impact and harm is particularly long-lasting. These sentences send a message to those around the world who think they can escape our laws – anyone who engages in or facilitates deceptive practices like these will not go undetected. HSI will continue to work tirelessly to hold those criminals accountable and bring justice to victims,” DoJ stated in the release.
