Iheanyichukwu Jonathan Abraham, a United Kingdom-based Nigerian, has been sentenced to 90 months in a United States prison for his role in a transnational inheritance fraud scheme.

According to a statement on the website of the US Justice Department, 44-year-old Abraham was handed the sentence by a US District Court in Miami, Florida, on August 29.

Before making the court appearance, the Nigerian was extradited from the UK by law enforcement agents.

Court documents revealed that Abraham was with a group of fraudsters that sent personalised letters to elderly victims in the US, falsely claiming to be a bank representative from Spain.

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Through the letter, recipients were told they were entitled to receive a multi-million-dollar inheritance left behind by a family member in Portugal who had died some years ago.

The victims were further told that, before they could receive the purported inheritance, they were supposed to send money for delivery fees and taxes. Apart from this, the unsuspecting elderly victims were also instructed to make other payments.

The victims sent the funds to the fraudsters through a complex web that consisted of US-based former victims. This meant that the syndicate convinced former victims to receive money from new victims on its behalf and then forward it to others.

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With this, tracing the fraud proceeds was made difficult for law enforcement agents.

Emmanuel Samuel and Jerry Chucks Ozor, two other Nigerians who were also members of the crime syndicate, were sentenced to 82 and 87 months in jail respectively.