Court Jails Nigerian for Defrauding More Than 400 Americans in $6 Million Inheritance Scheme

A United States federal court has sentenced a Nigerian national, Tochukwu Albert Nnebocha, to more than eight years in prison for his role in a transnational inheritance fraud scheme that targeted elderly and vulnerable Americans.

According to a statement published on the US Department of Justice (DOJ) website on Friday, “a Nigerian National was sentenced today to more than eight years in prison for participating in a years-long conspiracy to defraud elderly and vulnerable Americans through an inheritance fraud scheme.”

The DOJ said Nnebocha, 44, and his accomplices ran the operation for over seven years, describing it as a sophisticated international fraud network that preyed on victims across the United States.

The statement read, “According to court documents, Tochukwu Albert Nnebocha, 44, of Nigeria, and his co-conspirators operated a lucrative transnational inheritance fraud scheme that exploited vulnerable people in the United States.

“Over the course of more than seven years, Nnebocha and his co-conspirators sent hundreds of thousands of personalized letters to elderly individuals 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 by a deceased family member.”

Victims were later instructed to make multiple payments before they could access the supposed inheritance.

“The conspirators then told the victims that, before they could receive their purported inheritance, they were required to send money for purported delivery fees, taxes, and payments regarding the inheritance. In total, the defendant and his co-conspirators defrauded over 400 U.S. victims of more than $6 million,” the statement read.

The DOJ added that “in total, the defendant and his co-conspirators defrauded over 400 U.S. victims of more than $6 million.”

Authorities disclosed that Nnebocha was arrested in Poland in April 2025 and extradited to the United States in September 2025. He subsequently pleaded guilty in November 2025 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.

At sentencing, the court imposed a 97-month prison term, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered restitution of more than $6.8 million to the victims.

The department noted that “this is the second indicted case related to this international fraud scheme,” adding that eight co-conspirators from the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and Nigeria had already been convicted and sentenced.

Investigations were conducted by the US Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations, with support from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Legal Attaché in Poland, INTERPOL, Polish authorities, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, and the DOJ’s Office of International Affairs.

Senior Trial Attorney Phil Toomajian and Trial Attorney Joshua D. Rothman of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case, the statement said.