Florida court jails Jonathan Abraham, two other Nigerians over fraud

Jonathan Iheanyichukwu Abraham, Emmanuel Samuel, and Jerry Chucks Ozor, three Nigerians who pleaded guilty to huge fraud in the US, received sentences totalling more than 21 years in jail.

In inheritance fraud, the guys had preyed on the elderly and the weak, resulting in losses amounting to millions of dollars.

At a court in Miami, Florida, the three men, who were all residents of London, received their sentences.

They will each be required to pay back more than $20 million (£15.7 million) in restitution orders, which are court judgments requiring offenders to reimburse victims for all or part of the money they stole.

Emmanuel Samuel, also 44, of Longhurst Road in Croydon was given a sentence of six years and ten months in prison, while 44-year-old Jonathan Abraham of Cumberland Place in Hither Green received a term of seven years and six months.

Jerry Chuks Ozor, age 43, of Penge's Wadhurst Court received a seven-year, three-month sentence.

They were detained by NCA operatives in south London in April 2022, and this year they were extradited to the US.

In order to achieve their extraditions in June of this year, the NCA's Complex Financial Crime Team collaborated with US partners, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the Home Office.

Additional fraud suspects were detained by Spanish authorities in Madrid, and related enforcement activity also occurred in Portugal.

Investigators from the National Crime Agency collaborated closely with the US Department of Justice, US Postal Inspection Service, and European partners to coordinate the international activity, identify and apprehend suspects, and gather evidence after information about a global network of fraudsters stealing millions of dollars became public.

By unexpectedly notifying people that a long-lost relative had passed away and that they were entitled to inherit their riches, the deception was carried out.

In order to convince the victims to pay fees and costs to release the assets, more contacts were used to entice them.

Millions of dollars worth of fraud have already been exposed, with thousands of victims, mostly in the US.

Gary Cathcart, Head of Financial Investigation at the NCA, said: “This was a transnational, high-harm fraud, where a dispersed network of ruthless criminals worked together to identify and target victims, inflicting life-changing damage to vulnerable people.

“International cooperation is essential to tackle such criminals; by working with our partners we can disrupt fraud and better protect the public.”

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