A 35-year-old Nigerian, Olamide Shanu, has pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiracy to commit money laundering after participating in romance and sextortion schemes that allegedly defrauded about 150 Americans of more than $2.5 million.
Shanu entered his guilty plea on Monday before the US District Court for the District of Idaho, according to the US Department of Justice in a statement issued Tuesday, reports The PUNCH.
The department said Shanu and his co-conspirators operated schemes targeting victims across the United States, using deceptive online identities to obtain money from them.
In the sextortion scheme, the conspirators allegedly targeted male victims and persuaded them to send sexually explicit images of themselves.
They subsequently threatened to share the images with the victims’ friends and family members unless payments were made.
The group also targeted older men and women through romance scams, allegedly creating fake identities on social media and developing deceptive emotional relationships with victims.
According to court documents, the conspirators would gain the victims’ trust, convince them that they had a romantic future together and subsequently request money, often citing urgent financial difficulties or other fabricated needs.
The proceeds were allegedly laundered through peer-to-peer payment applications and multiple cryptocurrency wallet addresses before being transferred to co-conspirators in Nigeria.
“This case exposes a sophisticated international scheme that exploited Americans through sextortion and romance fraud, laundering millions in criminal proceeds,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said.
Duva said the department’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative was established to combat such schemes and prosecute those responsible.
US Attorney for the District of Idaho Bart M. Davis said Shanu’s guilty plea demonstrated the authorities’ efforts to pursue cybercrime suspects irrespective 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 investigated the schemes.
Shanu is scheduled to be sentenced on December 15 and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The final sentence will be determined by a federal district court judge after considering the US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
