US authorities have sentenced East Providence resident Samson Ikotun to 42 months in jail for his role in an international money laundering scheme. As part of this scheme, Ikotun transferred over $1.8 million of illicitly-obtained money to Nigeria. In September 2021, Ikotun pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Ikotun and his co-conspirators defrauded their victims of $1,784,654 through various scams, including romance scams, lottery frauds, rental property frauds and email compromises. Of this money, Ikotun sent over $888,000 to his co-conspirators in Nigeria via different banking methods or by purchasing used vehicles and shipping them to Nigeria where the co-conspirators resold them.
Agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Ikotun when he was at the airport with a one-way ticket to Nigeria. After serving his prison sentence, Ikotun will have to undergo two years of supervised release and pay a restitution amount that the court will soon decide.
Source: US Department of Justice