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Nigerian 4-1-9 Scam > Nigerian
Money Laundering
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For Information Contact Public Affairs
September 25, 2002
U.S. Department of Justice
Marcos Daniel Jiménez
United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida,
99 N.E. 4 Street
Miami, FL 33132
DEFENDANT SENTENCED TO EIGHT YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT
FOR HIS CONVICTION IN A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR
NIGERIAN MONEY DIVERSION/MONEY LAUNDERING SCHEME
Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District
of Florida, and Frank D. Estrada, Special Agent in Charge of the United States
Secret Service, announced today that on September 24, 2002, United States District
Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages sentenced Benjamin N. Oluku, a Nigerian national,
to eight years’ imprisonment for his participation in a multi-million
dollar international money diversion/money laundering scheme which resulted
in a seizure of $4.35 million.
A federal jury in Miami had previously convicted Mr. Oluku at trial in April
2002. Mr. Oluku was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud,
mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and passport fraud. He has forfeited
any interest he may have as to the $4.35 million. The United States Secret
Service’s seizure of $4.35 million of the diverted money from Mr. Oluku
and his American co-defendants was the second-largest seizure in history from
the Secret Service’s investigations of Nigerian money scams.
At trial, the United States showed that Mr. Oluku, with the assistance of
co-defendants in Miami, diverted more than $4.35 million of a purported payment
for the purchase of crude oil by an European entity from Nigeria through an
account in the Isle of Man to an account of a fictitious Nigerian-sounding
company in Miami. Under the scheme hatched by Mr. Oluku and his Nigerian co-conspirators,
the $4.35 million were to be transferred to another account of a fictitious
person in Miami so that the money could be further laundered back to Mr. Oluku
and his co-conspirators in Nigeria.
Mr. Jiménez commended the investigative efforts of the United States
Secret Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney
Richard Hong.
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See: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/Oluku2.html
United States Attorney for the
Southern District of Florida
99 N.E. 4 Street
Miami, FL 33132
(305) 961-9001
For Information Contact Public Affairs
Jacqueline Becerra,
Acting Special Counsel for Public Affairs, (305) 961-9243
Marjorie M. Selige,
Public Affairs Specialist, (305) 961-9048
