A United States federal court has sentenced a Nigerian national, Leslie Chinedu Mba, to 19 years in prison following his conviction on charges of wire fraud conspiracy and the falsification of immigration documents crimes that netted over $4 million from unsuspecting victims across a five-year period.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the sentencing on Thursday, disclosing that the 40-year-old would also be deported to Nigeria upon completing his custodial term an outcome the prosecuting attorney described pointedly as “a one-way ticket back to Nigeria.”
Court documents revealed that between April 2018 and December 2023, Mba operated as part of a transnational criminal network executing business email compromise schemes and romance scams targeting individuals and organisations within and beyond American borders. The operation began overseas, where co-conspirators gained unauthorised access to corporate email accounts and manipulated payment instructions to redirect funds into fraudulent bank accounts.
Victims, many of whom were small business owners and elderly individuals, transferred money in the genuine belief they were fulfilling legitimate financial obligations. Instead, the funds were quietly channelled into accounts controlled by Mba and his associates, who functioned as money mules receiving, laundering, and redistributing the stolen proceeds through a network of bank accounts. The total losses to victims amounted to $4 million.
Beyond the financial crimes, Mba compounded his legal jeopardy through a separate and brazen attempt to secure permanent residency in the United States by fraudulent means. Having been denied a legitimate immigration application and subsequently ordered removed from the country, he entered into multiple sham marriages in a bid to circumvent U.S. immigration authorities a scheme that ultimately failed and formed a central plank of the prosecution’s case.
Mba entered a guilty plea on December 4, 2025, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to make false statements in immigration documents, paving the way for Thursday’s sentencing.
U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei did not mince words in his assessment of the crimes, characterising romance scams as among “the lowest and most despicable forms of fraud” for the deliberate targeting of lonely and vulnerable people, particularly senior citizens.
“These online scams jeopardised the livelihood of family-run businesses, the ability of elderly individuals to retire, and exploited the trust that fuels our economy,” Ganjei said, adding that Mba’s concurrent attempt to remain in the United States through deception made his conduct all the more egregious.
The case serves as the latest in a series of high-profile prosecutions of Nigerian nationals implicated in large-scale cyber-enabled fraud in the United States, as American law enforcement agencies continue to intensify cooperation with international partners to dismantle transnational criminal networks.
