A 35-year-old extradited Nigerian man, Olamide Shanu, on Monday, September 21, pleaded guilty in the United States (US) to conspiracy to commit money laundering after participating in sextortion and romance fraud schemes that defrauded about 150 Americans of more than $2.5 million.
Shanu entered the guilty plea in the District of Idaho, according to a statement issued by the US Department of Justice on Tuesday.
The Justice Department said Shanu and his co-conspirators made more than $2.5 million from the schemes, which targeted victims across the US.
In the sextortion scheme, the conspirators typically targeted male victims and persuaded them to send sexual images of themselves.
They would then threaten to send the images to the victims’ friends and family unless the victims paid money.
The conspirators also targeted older women and men through romance scams, using fake identities on social media to establish deceptive emotional relationships with their victims.
According to court documents, the conspirators gained the victims’ trust, convinced them that they had a romantic future together and subsequently asked them for money, citing various supposedly urgent financial needs.
The proceeds from the schemes were laundered through peer-to-peer payment applications and several cryptocurrency wallet addresses before being transferred to co-conspirators in Nigeria.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said the case exposed a sophisticated international scheme that exploited Americans through sextortion and romance fraud while laundering millions of dollars in criminal proceeds.
Duva said the department’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative was established to tackle such schemes and bring those responsible to justice.
The US Attorney for the District of Idaho, Bart M. Davis, said the guilty plea demonstrated efforts to prosecute cybercriminals regardless of where they operated.
“This guilty plea, involving more than $2.5 million in laundered proceeds, reflects the dedicated efforts of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners to disrupt international criminal networks, protect victims, and ensure that cyber-enabled crime does not go unanswered,” Davis said.
The US Secret Service and Boise Police Department are investigating the schemes.
Shanu is scheduled to be sentenced on December 15 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
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