Nigerian bags 10-year jail term in US for romance fraud

A Nigerian identified as Olugbenga Lawal was on Monday sentenced to ten years in prison in the United States for conspiring to launder money derived from internet fraud schemes.

Lawal, 33, of Indianapolis, Indiana, has also reportedly been ordered to pay over $1.46 million in restitution.

In a statement, the U.S Department of Justice said court documents and evidence presented at trial revealed that Lawal worked hand-in-hand with the Nigeria-based leader of an international criminal organization that defrauded individuals and businesses across the United States of money amounting to millions of dollars.

“According to the papers, they were able to carry out these fraud through sophisticated internet-based fraud schemes, including romance fraud and business email compromise schemes,” the report read.

The report stated that criminal organization frequently targeted elderly victims who believed they had fallen in love with people they had met on the Internet. 

This further helped Lawal to launder millions of dollars of proceeds from the fraud schemes.

The U.S Department of Justice added that between January 2019 and June 2020, bank accounts used by Lawal and his co-conspirators to launder money on behalf of the criminal organization received millions of dollars traced directly to individuals and businesses defrauded over the internet by members of the said criminal organization.

“Accounts Lawal controlled received over $3.6 million in deposits between January 2019 and May 2020,” it said. 

“Those deposits were spread across seven different bank accounts Lawal opened in his own name or the name of his business entity, Luxe Logistics LLC. 

“Ultimately, Lawal controlled bank accounts at no less than five different financial institutions in furtherance of his money laundering.”

Additionally, Lawal effectively carried out his role in laundering money for the criminal organization.

According to the report, the suspect did this by converting the fraud dollars deposited in his accounts into Nigerian currency accessible back in the West African country.

He was also said to have engaged in import/export transactions involving the shipment of cars to Nigeria.

Lawal had a hand in currency exchange business transactions to facilitate the repatriation of the organization’s fraud proceeds back to Nigeria.

“On Aug. 10, 2023, Lawal was convicted by a federal jury of conspiring to commit money laundering,” the report read. 

“Three co-conspirators, Michael Hermann, Rita Assane, and Dwight Baines, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.”