A Nigerian, Okezie Ogbata, has been charged with defrauding more than 400 elderly and vulnerable victims of over $6 million by a district court in Florida, United States.
The Southern District of Florida, last Wednesday, found Ogbata guilty of operating a transnational inheritance fraud scheme to dupe American senior citizens.
The Department of Justice accused the 36-year-old Nigerian and his co-conspirators of lying to victims “to send money for delivery fees, taxes and other payments to avoid questioning from government authorities.”
It said Ogbata and his accomplices wrote to his victims pretending that he 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 overseas years before.”
Ogbata confessed to defrauding over $6m from more than 400 victims, many of whom were elderly or otherwise vulnerable.
The Head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, General Brian Boynton, said, “This case is a testament to the critical role of international collaboration in tackling transnational crime.”
US District Judge Roy Altman is to rule on Agbata on April 14, 2025 with The Nigerian Achievers Awards Institute, with the possibility of a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
