A United States federal court has sentenced a Nigerian national, Tochukwu Albert Nnebocha, to 97 months in prison for his role in a long-running international inheritance fraud scheme that targeted elderly and vulnerable Americans.
The conviction was announced on Friday, February 6, in a statement by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which described the scheme as a sophisticated, transnational operation that spanned more than seven years and defrauded victims of over $6 million.
According to court records, Nnebocha, 44, and his accomplices sent hundreds of thousands of personalised letters to elderly individuals across the United States. The letters falsely claimed to be from representatives of a Spanish bank and informed recipients that they were beneficiaries of a multimillion-dollar inheritance allegedly left by a deceased relative.
Victims were then instructed to make advance payments for purported fees, including taxes, delivery costs and other administrative charges, before the non-existent inheritance could be released. Investigators said more than 400 victims were deceived through the scheme.
The DOJ disclosed that Nnebocha was arrested in Poland in April 2025 following international investigations and was extradited to the United States in September 2025. He pleaded guilty in November 2025 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.
In addition to the prison term, the court ordered Nnebocha to serve three years of supervised release after completing his sentence and to pay restitution exceeding $6.8 million to the victims.
The department noted that the case is the second prosecution linked to the broader fraud network. Eight other co-conspirators based in the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and Nigeria have previously been convicted and sentenced.
The investigation was conducted by the US Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations, with support from INTERPOL, Polish authorities, the FBI’s Legal Attaché in Poland, and the US Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs.