Nigerian Emmanuel Ehkator has been sentenced to three years in prison by a District Court in Middle Pennsylvania, United States for $11m fraud.
Emmanuel, for long a target of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for criminal conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, will pay a restitution of $11,092,028 to his victims. In addition, Justice Yvette Kane ruled that he will forfeit property in Canada and several bank accounts in Nigeria.
Head, Media and Publicity of EFCC, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, released a statement on Thursday, saying the commission arrested the 42–year-old in August 2010 in Nigeria, and was extradited to the U.S. the following year after he pleaded guilty.
Prosecutor, Assistant US Attorney, Christy H. Fawcett had told the Pennsylvania court that Emmanuel was part of an “attorney collection scam” in which he would contact US and Canadian law firms by email. He would then claim to be individuals or businesses outside North America seeking legal representation to retrieved money owed by entities in the US.
“Often, the prospective clients said the money owed came from a real estate transaction, tort claim, or divorce settlement,” the prosecutor explained.
“Once the law firm agreed to represent the out-of-country client, the law firm would be contacted by the US entity purportedly owing money with an offer to pay the client by cheque.
“The debtor company would advise the law firm to deposit the cheque in the law firm’s trust account, retain the law firm’s fee, and wire the remaining funds to accounts in Asia.”
Funds from the law firm’s trust account would be wired to the Asian bank, only for it to be discovered that the mailed cheque was fake. The arrangement was such that the fake cheques, which appeared to be drawn on legitimate accounts from well-established financial institutions, often bore a telephone number for the financial institution.
Poised to ascertain the validity of the cheque, lawyers would call the number, and a co-conspirator who would answer, falsely verifying the cheque.
Emmanuel co-defendant, Yvette Mathurin was charged for conspiracy and was awaiting extradition from Canada, while another co-conspirator, Kingsley Osagie was arrested as he arrived in Atlanta, Georgia area, from Nigeria, and is now awaiting trial in the same court.
