January 17, 2025
By Adedoja Adesoji
A 36-year-old Nigerian national, Okezie Bonaventure Ogbata, has been implicated in a large-scale transnational inheritance scam that defrauded over $6 million from more than 400 elderly and vulnerable victims in the US.
Ogbata’s scheme involved sending personalized letters to victims, claiming to represent a Spanish bank and alleging that they were entitled to multimillion-dollar inheritances left by deceased family members overseas.
Victims were then deceived into sending money for supposed delivery fees, taxes, and other payments to facilitate the release of their inheritance funds.
“The Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch will continue to pursue transnational criminals wherever they are located,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton.
“This case is a testament to the critical role of international collaboration in tackling transnational crime”.
Ogbata faces up to 20 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 14, 2025, before Judge Roy K. Altman.
This is not an isolated incident, as six other co-conspirators from the UK, Spain, and Nigeria have previously been convicted and sentenced in connection with this scheme.
The sentences ranged from 82 to 128 months in prison.
“The long arm of the American justice system has no limits when it comes to reaching fraudsters who prey on our nation’s most vulnerable populations, to include the elderly,” said U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida.
