Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - A Nigerian national, Tochukwu Albert Nnebocha, was extradited from the Republic of Poland and faces federal charges of engaging in a transnational criminal organization that operated an inheritance fraud scheme that cheated many American seniors out of their savings.
Nnebocha made his initial appearance on Monday, September
29, 2025 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjolique Lett of the U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of Florida.
According to a press release issued by the United State
Department of Justice, Nnebocha, 43, was arrested in April 2025 by authorities
in Poland, based on an indictment filed in the Southern District of Florida,
and has remained incarcerated since then.
According to court documents, Nnebocha is charged with
operating a transnational inheritance fraud scheme. Over the course of more
than five years, he, along with others, allegedly sent personalized letters to
elderly consumers 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 for the recipient by a family
member who purportedly had died years before in Spain.
Victims were told that, before they could receive their
purported inheritance, they were required to send money for delivery fees,
taxes, and payments to avoid questioning from government authorities.
Victims sent money to the defendants through a complex web
of U.S.-based former victims, whom the defendants convinced to receive money
and forward to the defendants or persons associated with them. According to the
indictment, victims who sent money never received their purported inheritance
funds.
The defendant is charged with conspiracy to commit mail and
wire fraud, as well as mail fraud and wire fraud.
If convicted, Nnebocha faces a maximum penalty of 20 years
in prison.
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence
after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory
factors.
Two additional defendants have pleaded guilty and been
sentenced in this case.
The Honorable Roy K. Altman previously sentenced both Okezie
Bonaventure Ogbata, who was extradited from Portugal, and Ehis Lawrence
Akhimie, who was extradited from the United Kingdom, to 97 months of
incarceration for their roles in the scheme.
USPIS and HSI are investigating the case
“This case is one example of efforts by the Justice
Department to protect American seniors from domestic and foreign based scams.
These efforts include cases against those who engage in, and knowingly
facilitate, romance fraud, lottery fraud, tech support fraud, and grandparent
scams. Romance fraud is a confidence scheme where a perpetrator feigns romantic
interest with a victim only to later extract money or property under false
pretenses,” the statement read.
"Lottery fraud schemes trick victims into believing they
have won a non-existent lottery or sweepstakes prize in order to extract fake
fees, taxes, or other fabricated charges from the victim. Tech support fraud
scams involve perpetrators tricking victims into believing that their computer
or phone has a problem, often through fake pop-up messages, and to later seek
funds from the victims in order to “fix” the “problem.”
“Grandparent scams, another type of confidence scheme,
involve scammers impersonating a grandchild or close family member who
experiences a fictitious emergency and needs money from the victim as soon as
possible.”
Senior Trial Attorney and Transnational Criminal Litigation
Coordinator Phil Toomajian and Trial Attorney Josh Rothman of the Justice
Department’s Consumer Protection Branch are prosecuting the case.
The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs, the
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, the Federal Bureau
of Investigations Legal Attache in Poland, INTERPOL, and Polish Authorities,
all provided critical assistance.
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