Tochukwu Albert Nnebocha, a Nigerian national, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison by a U.S. federal court for his role in a lengthy transnational inheritance fraud scam that preyed on elderly and defenceless Americans.

"A Nigerian National was sentenced today to more than eight years in prison for participating in a years-long conspiracy to defraud elderly and vulnerable Americans through an inheritance fraud scheme," the US Department of Justice said in a statement posted on its website on Friday.

For more than seven years, Nnebocha, 44, and his associates operated a complex international fraud network that defrauded victims all around the United States, according to the Department of Justice.

The statement read, “According to court documents, Tochukwu Albert Nnebocha, 44, of Nigeria, and his co-conspirators operated a lucrative transnational inheritance fraud scheme that exploited vulnerable people in the United States.

“Over the course of more than seven years, Nnebocha and his co-conspirators sent hundreds of thousands of personalized letters to elderly individuals in the United States, falsely claiming that the sender was a representative of a bank in Spain and that the recipient was entitled to receive a multimillion-dollar inheritance left by a deceased family member.”

Victims were then instructed to send multiple payments before they could supposedly access the inheritance.

“The conspirators then told the victims that, before they could receive their purported inheritance, they were required to send money for purported delivery fees, taxes, and payments regarding the inheritance. In total, the defendant and his co-conspirators defrauded over 400 U.S. victims of more than $6 million,” the statement read.

The Department of Justice further stated that “in total, the defendant and his co-conspirators defrauded over 400 U.S. victims of more than $6 million.”

Nnebocha was arrested in Poland in April 2025 and extradited to the United States in September 2025.

He pleaded guilty in November 2025 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.

During sentencing, the court imposed a 97-month prison term, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

The court also ordered restitution of more than $6.8 million to the victims.

"This is the second indicted case related to this international fraud scheme," the Department of Justice stated.

It further stated that eight co-conspirators from Nigeria, Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom had previously been found guilty and given sentences related to the same conspiracy.

Homeland Security Investigations and the US Postal Inspection Service were in charge of the inquiry.

The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, the DOJ's Office of International Affairs, Polish authorities, INTERPOL, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Legal Attaché in Poland provided assistance.

The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Joshua D. Rothman and Senior Trial Attorney Phil Toomajian of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section.