Man jailed for money laundering in US
A Nigerian man, Chukwunonso Obiora, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for engaging in money laundering and passport fraud conspiracies in the United States.
Obiora was also ordered by the US court in Massachusetts to pay $3,326,014.14 in restitution and forfeiture.
The US Department of Justice disclosed on Monday that the Nigerian “organised schemes to receive and withdraw more than $6.5m in criminal proceeds from business email compromise schemes.”
His sentence by the US District Judge, Indira Talwani, would be followed by three years of supervised release.
The 37-year-old was arrested on a criminal complaint in October 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was indicted in January 2024.
In June 2024, Obiora pleaded guilty to one count of passport fraud conspiracy and one count of money laundering conspiracy.
According to the DOJ statement, “Between at least as early as March 2021 and May 2023, Obiora and several co-conspirators agreed to receive and withdraw the proceeds of business email compromises from bank accounts that they controlled, and to direct those funds to other co-conspirators, in exchange for a cut of the criminal proceeds.”
Obiora’s money laundering conspiracy, in which he admitted to being a leader and organiser, involved obtaining individual victims’ means of identification and creating fake driving licences, incorporating businesses, as well as opening bank accounts in the victims’ names.
He also offered the bank accounts to co-conspirators involved in the BEC schemes as accounts to which victims could be tricked into sending money.
“After immigration authorities removed the defendant from the US in December 2021, he agreed with a close relative who is an American citizen to obtain a US passport in the relative’s name, which the defendant could use to re-enter the United States illegally,” the statement added.
