A Nigerian national, Tochukwu Albert Nnebocha, has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for his role in a long-running international inheritance fraud scheme that defrauded hundreds of elderly and vulnerable Americans of millions of dollars.
Nnebocha, 44, was sentenced to 97 months’ imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay over $6.8 million in restitution to victims, according to a statement issued on Friday by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).
Court documents revealed that Nnebocha and his co-conspirators operated a sophisticated transnational fraud network for more than seven years, sending hundreds of thousands of personalised letters to elderly individuals across the United States.
The letters falsely claimed that the recipients were entitled to multimillion-dollar inheritances left by deceased relatives and that the senders were representatives of a bank in Spain. Victims were then instructed to pay various fees—including delivery charges, taxes, and administrative costs—before they could receive the fictitious inheritance.
In total, the conspiracy defrauded more than 400 victims of over $6 million, the DOJ said.
Nnebocha was arrested in Poland in April 2025 following international law enforcement cooperation and was extradited to the United States in September 2025. He subsequently pleaded guilty in November 2025 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.
Announcing the sentencing, Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida, Inspector in Charge Bladismir Rojo of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Miami Division, and Acting Special Agent in Charge Ray Rede of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Arizona confirmed that the case was part of a broader international crackdown on organised fraud networks.
The authorities disclosed that this is the second case arising from the same fraud scheme, noting that eight co-conspirators from the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, and Nigeria have already been convicted and sentenced in connection with the operation.
The investigation was jointly carried out by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations, while prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division Fraud Section, led by Senior Trial Attorney Phil Toomajian and Trial Attorney Joshua D. Rothman, handled the case.
The DOJ also acknowledged the critical role played by the Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, the FBI Legal Attaché in Poland, INTERPOL, and Polish authorities in securing Nnebocha’s arrest and extradition.
The case underscores U.S. authorities’ renewed commitment to protecting elderly citizens from transnational fraud and holding perpetrators accountable, regardless of where they operate.
