US authorities have sentenced 24-year-old Joseph Iorhemba Asan Jr. to 46 months in prison for his involvement in romance fraud and business email compromise schemes defrauding dozens of victims, and laundering millions of dollars in fraud proceeds to Nigeria-based co-conspirators. The authorities have also sentenced Asan to three years of supervised release. Additionally, he will have to forfeit $184,723 and pay a restitution of $1,792,015 to victims.
Asan, who was arrested in October 2019, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and bank fraud in December 2020. In 2018-19, Asan, along with co-conspirator Charles Ifeanyi Ogozy, laundered illicit funds primarily obtained through two fraudulent schemes. Firstly, Asan, Ogozy and other conspirators lured gullible elderly victims into romantic relationships by using fake identities. They then tricked the victims into transferring money to their bank accounts. Secondly, the conspirators hacked into (or made fake) email accounts pretending to be employees of a company and then tricked the victims into transferring money to their bank accounts.
To launder the illicitly-obtained money, Asan opened 10 bank accounts in the names of fake businesses by misleading the banks about the nature of his companies. He used these accounts to conduct transactions of $1.8 million (obtained from over 69 victims) with foreign co-conspirators. A large part of the illicit funds was deposited and withdrawn in cash, and could not be traced by authorities.
Source: US Department of Justice