A United States court has sentenced a Nigerian national, Tochukwu Albert Nnebocha, to over eight years in prison for his role in a large-scale inheritance fraud that targeted elderly Americans.
Nnebocha, 44, was handed a 97-month jail term after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, according to a statement released by the US Department of Justice on Friday.
Investigators said the convict was part of an international syndicate that ran the scheme for more than seven years, sending personalised letters to elderly victims across the United States.
The letters falsely claimed the recipients were beneficiaries of multimillion-dollar inheritances being processed through a foreign bank, usually said to be based in Spain.
Victims were then directed to pay various charges, including taxes and delivery fees, before the fictitious inheritance could be released, payments which investigators said were diverted by the fraudsters.
The Department of Justice disclosed that more than 400 victims were defrauded of over $6m through the scheme.
Nnebocha was arrested in Poland in April 2025 and extradited to the United States five months later, before entering a guilty plea in November 2025.
The court also ordered him to serve three years of supervised release after his prison term and pay over $6.8m in restitution to victims, while authorities noted that several other members of the syndicate had already been convicted in related cases.
