A Nigerian man, Tochukwu Albert Nnebocha, has been sentenced to over eight years in prison by a U.S. court for his role in a large-scale inheritance fraud scheme targeting elderly and vulnerable Americans. The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the sentence, which amounts to 97 months, along with three years of supervised release and a restitution order exceeding $6.8 million to compensate the victims.
Nnebocha, 44, was involved in an elaborate international scam that spanned more than seven years. Alongside his co-conspirators, he sent hundreds of thousands of personalized letters to elderly individuals in the United States. These letters falsely claimed to be from representatives of a Spanish bank, informing recipients that they were entitled to inherit a multimillion-dollar estate from a deceased family member.
The scheme required the victims to pay various upfront fees—allegedly for taxes, delivery charges, and other expenses—to access their supposed inheritance. In reality, these fees were a ploy to extract money from unsuspecting targets. According to the DOJ, over 400 American victims lost more than $6 million through this fraudulent operation.
Nnebocha was apprehended in Poland in April 2025 and subsequently extradited to the United States in September of the same year. He pleaded guilty in November 2025 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. This conviction follows earlier prosecutions related to the same fraud ring, where eight other individuals from the UK, Spain, Portugal, and Nigeria were previously sentenced.
The investigation involved a coordinated international effort, led by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations. They worked closely with the FBI’s Legal Attaché in Poland, INTERPOL, Polish authorities, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, and the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs.
The prosecution team included Senior Trial Attorney Phil Toomajian and Trial Attorney Joshua D. Rothman from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. This case marks the second set of indictments connected to this global inheritance fraud network, highlighting the extensive reach and impact of the criminal operation.
The DOJ’s statement emphasized the serious consequences of such scams, especially given the vulnerability of the targeted elderly population. The successful prosecution and sentencing of Nnebocha and his co-conspirators aim to serve as a warning to those involved in similar international fraud schemes.
