Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah – Three overseas nationwide males, dwelling in Utah, have been sentenced after pleading responsible to their participation in a four-person cash laundering ring that aided and abetted the defrauding of greater than 100 victims, primarily widows.
On Thursday, February 9, 2023, David Oguoguo Okeke, 30, of Winery, Utah, was sentenced to 54 months imprisonment and 36 months supervised launch, after pleading responsible to cash laundering conspiracy. He was ordered to pay $2,219,802.97 in restitution. Upon launch from imprisonment, Okeke can be remanded to the Federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation proceedings.
Moreover, in accordance with courtroom paperwork, after pleading responsible to conspiracy to commit cash laundering, Okeke’s codefendants Justin Akubueze, 30, and Abiemwense Valentine Obanor, 32, each previously of Winery, Utah, have been sentenced to 54 months and 74 months imprisonment, respectively. Every defendant was sentenced to 36 months supervised launch and ordered to pay $219,802.97 in restitution collectively with Okeke.
The aim of the scheme was to acquire cash by creating on-line profiles pretending to be a United States soldier, worldwide businessmen, or another seemingly engaging profile, and utilizing these profiles to develop relationships with victims. After their associates have been charged with comparable crimes in a special case, (see press launch right here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ut/pr/eight-individuals-charged-fraud-scheme-targeting-widows-created-false-identities-feigned), Akubueze and Obanor left the USA. After a federal grand jury returned an indictment towards them, they have been extradited to the USA to face the costs towards them.
“The U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace will proceed to prosecute fraudsters who make the most of victims, a lot of whom are aged, on a set revenue and lose cash meant to hold them all through the remainder of their life,” mentioned U.S. Lawyer, Trina A. Higgins, for the District of Utah. “Benefiting from our most weak inhabitants is unacceptable and with our regulation enforcement companions we’re dedicated to investigating these crimes.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer, Carl D. Lesueur, for the District of Utah prosecuted the case.
