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| The Three Victims. |
A
Mississippi court in the US has handed a 235-year jail term on three Nigerians
for various online fraudulent activities.
According
to NAN, Oladimeji Ayelotan, 30, was sentenced to 95 years in prison; Rasaq
Aderoju Raheem, 31, was handed 115 years, while Femi Alexander Mewase, 45, got
25 years behind bars.
The
Nigerians, who befriended many of their victims on dating sites, had made “tens
of millions of dollars” from their schemes.
The
court located in the southern district of Mississippi had, in February, found
the three guilty of crimes ranging from mail fraud to wire fraud, identity
theft, credit card fraud as well as theft of government property.
Ayelotan
and Raheem were also found guilty of conspiracies to commit bank fraud and
money laundering.
The
US department of justice said as far back as 2001, the scammers were involved
in multiple Internet fraud schemes, resulting in losses in the tens of
millions.
It
said the three would “befriend women on dating sites, establish a romantic
relationship and then either get them to send money or have them participate in
fraud schemes, usually without the victim’s knowledge.”
The
department said the unsuspecting women would sometimes be required to “cash
counterfeit checks and money orders, use stolen credit card details to purchase
goods, and use stolen personal information to take over victims’ bank
accounts.”
“They
were also apparently used to launder money via Western Union and MoneyGram, and
re-package and re-ship goods obtained fraudulently,” the department said.
The
three Nigerians were reportedly among the six extradited from South Africa by
US department of justice in 2015 after being accused of “running a series of
scams against gullible Americans” over the past 16 years.
Fourteen
others resident in the US were also arrested to face trial in Gulfport,
Mississippi, on nine federal charges including conspiracy to commit identity
theft, wire fraud, bank fraud, theft of US government funds, and conspiracy to
commit money laundering.
They
were also accused of “running romance stings to bilk the lonely of funds,
shipping fraud, running fake work-from-home businesses, check fraud, and
plain-old hijacking of other people’s bank accounts and credit cards to divert
funds.”
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