A United States District Court has sentenced Nigerian national Ehis Akhimie to eight years and one month in prison for his involvement in a $6 million inheritance fraud scheme that targeted more than 400 elderly victims.
According to a statement released by the US Department of Justice on Tuesday, Akhimie was convicted and sentenced on September 11 after being found guilty of participating in the fraud.
The statement explained that Akhimie belonged to a group that tricked elderly victims in the US by sending letters about fake inheritance claims.
The DoJ said,
“The letters falsely claimed that the sender was a representative of a bank in Spain and that the recipient was entitled to receive a multimillion-dollar inheritance left to them by a family member who had died overseas years prior.
Akhimie and his co-conspirators told a series of lies to victims, including that, before they could receive their purported inheritance, they were required to send money for delivery fees, taxes, and other payments to avoid questioning from government authorities.
Akhimie and his co-conspirators collected money that victims sent in response to the fraudulent letters through a complex web of U.S.-based former victims, whom the defendants convinced to receive money and forward it to the defendants or persons associated with them.”
Investigations revealed that Akhimie and his associates never delivered any inheritance. Instead, he admitted to receiving over $6 million in fraud proceeds.
The statement added,
“In pleading guilty, Akhimie admitted to defrauding over $6m from more than 400 victims, many of whom were elderly or otherwise vulnerable. He was sentenced on September 11 to 97 months in prison for his role in a transnational inheritance fraud scheme.”
Akhimie is the eighth defendant sentenced in connection with the scheme. Earlier, on April 25, Okezie Bonaventure Ogbata, who was extradited from Portugal, was also sentenced to 97 months in prison for his role.
The DoJ described the conduct of the defendants as highly damaging, stating,
“the defendant’s offence conduct as ‘an incredibly serious crime’ and stating that it merited a substantial sentence because it was important to stand up for the most vulnerable, for the least protected members of our society who have done absolutely nothing wrong.”
His conviction adds to the list of Nigerians jailed in the US for various offences, a trend that continues to affect the country’s reputation globally.
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