Two Nigerians who are based in the United Kingdom (UK), Jonathan Abraham and Jerry Chucks Ozor, will today be brought before a United States (US) court in over alleged internet scam.
Abraham, Ozor and a Spain-based Nigerian, Kennedy Ikponmwosa, were recently extradited to the US by the UK and Spanish governments, following their alleged involvement in a six-man criminal enterprise that defrauded elderly Americans.
According to a statement by the US Department of Justice, Kennedy Ikponmwosa, 51; Iheanyichukwu Jonathan Abraham, 44; and Jerry Chucks Ozor, 43, could face 20 years in jail, if convicted.
The three suspected fraudsters was extradited to the Southern District of Florida to face federal charges of allegations that they and other members of the gang operated an international fraud scheme.
Ikponmwosa was extradited from Spain and made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres on April 18.
Abraham and Ozor were extradited from the United Kingdom on Friday, April 28 and will make their initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge Eduardo I. Sanchez on Monday, May 1, in Miami.
Ikponmwosa, Ezennia Peter Neboh, 48, and Prince Amos Okey Ezemma, 49, of Madrid, Spain; and Abraham, Ozor, and Emmanuel Samuel, 39, of London, UK, face federal charges in Miami, Florida.
Neboh, Ikponmwosa, Abraham, Samuel, and Ozor were arrested in April 2022 by authorities in Madrid and London, based on an indictment filed in the Southern District of Florida, and had been incarcerated since then.
Samuel pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit mail fraud and wire fraud on March 27.
According to court documents, the defendants were charged with operating an inheritance fraud scheme.
For more than five years, they allegedly sent personalised letters to elderly consumers 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 purportedly had died years before in Spain.
Victims were told that before they could receive their purported inheritance, they were required to send money for delivery fees, taxes, and payments to avoid questioning from government authorities.
Victims sent money to the defendants through a complex web of U.S.-based former victims, whom the defendants convinced to serve as money mules.
According to the indictment, victims who sent money never received their purported inheritance funds.
The defendants were all charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
Neboh and Samuel were both extradited earlier this year.
If convicted, Ikponmwosa, Abraham, and Ozor each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison per count.
