Nigerian national sentenced to 97 months in prison for defrauding elderly U.S victims of $6m

A Nigerian National has been sentenced to 97 months in prison for his role in a transnational inheritance fraud scheme that defrauded more than 400 victims of over $6 million, said the U.S Attorney’s Office in Miami.

Ehis Lawrence Akhimie, 41, was a member of a group that sent personalized letters to elderly Americans, falsely claiming they were entitled to a multimillion-dollar inheritance from deceased family member overseas, according to court documents filed in Miami Federal Court.

The U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced this in a statement issued by the Department of Justice on Monday, September 15, 2025.

Akhimie who was extradited from the United Kingdom to the U.S, was sentenced on September 11, 2025, according to the statement.

With the latest sentencing, eight Nigerians involved in the fraud scheme have been sentenced.

According to filings cited in the statement, Akhimie and his accomplices sent personalized letters to people in the United States, posing as bank official in Spain.

The letters told recipients they were entitled to multimillion-dollar inheritances from relatives who had supposedly died overseas.

Victims were instructed to pay fees, described as delivery charges, taxes and other costs, before they could received the money.

The also letters warned that these payments were needed to avoid “government scrutiny”.

The fund were then moved through a network of intermediaries, including the U.S based former victims who were persuaded to act as conduits for the syndicate.

The statement read in parts: “Akhimie and his co-conspirators collected money victims sent in response to fraudulent letters through a complex web of U.S-based former victims, whom the defendants convinced to receive money and forward it to the defendant or persons associated with them.

“Victims who sent money never received any purported inheritance funds. In pleading guilty, Akhimie admitted to defrauding over $6 million from more than 400 victims, many whom were elderly or otherwise vulnerable”, the statement read.

-9News Nigeria.