The United States Department of Justice this week unsealed an indictment that charges 80 defendants, most of them Nigerians, for their roles in a massive fraud and money laundering scheme.
The unsealing follows the arrest of 14 defendants across the United States in the same case. Two defendants were already in custody on other charges and one was arrested earlier this week. The individuals are believed to be abroad, most of them in Nigeria.
According to the indictment, the 80 individuals participated in online fraud schemes such as business email compromise (BEC), romance scams, and schemes targeting the elderly, aimed at defrauding victims out of millions of dollars.
A criminal complaint that the US DoJ also unsealed alleges that lead defendants provided co-conspirators based in Nigeria, the United States and other countries with bank and money-service accounts to receive fraudulent funds from victims.
The lead defendants in the indictment are two Nigerian citizens, Valentine Iro, 31, of Carson, and Chukwudi Christogunus Igbokwe, 38, of Gardena, both of them arrested this week.
The two coordinated the receipt of funds and supervised an extensive money-laundering network. The schemes Iro and Igbokwe were involved in resulted in the fraudulent transfer of at least $6 million. Overall, the conspiracy also attempted to steal an additional $40 million.
The defendants targeted individuals, small and large businesses, and law firms in the United States and around the world. Some of the victims lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and many were elderly.
Iro and Igbokwe acted as brokers of fraudulent bank accounts. They collected bank accounts, fielded requests for bank account information and delivered the information to co-conspirators, and also laundered the money obtained from victims. The two received a cut of the money stolen from victims.
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