30th September 2025-Published by Cyril

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has confirmed the extradition of Tochuwku Nnebocha, a 43-year-old Nigerian, from Poland to face federal charges for allegedly running a transnational inheritance fraud syndicate that swindled elderly Americans out of millions of dollars.

According to the DOJ, Nnebocha was arrested in Poland in April 2025 and has remained in custody until his extradition to the Southern District of Florida, where he made his first court appearance in Miami on Monday.

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Court documents allege that Nnebocha and his accomplices orchestrated a five-year inheritance scam, sending fake letters to seniors across the US, falsely claiming they were heirs to multimillion-dollar estates in Spain. Victims were then deceived into paying delivery fees, taxes, and other charges to claim their supposed inheritance.

• “Victims who sent money never received any inheritance funds. Instead, payments were routed through a web of manipulated intermediaries—often former victims—who unknowingly forwarded money to the fraudsters,” the DOJ explained.

Nnebocha now faces charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, as well as multiple counts of mail and wire fraud, crimes that carry a potential sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.

Two of his alleged co-conspirators, Okezie Bonaventure Ogbata (extradited from Portugal) and Ehis Lawrence Akhimie (extradited from the UK), have already pleaded guilty and are currently serving 97-month prison terms in the US.

The DOJ described the case as part of a wider crackdown on scams that disproportionately target American seniors, including romance scams, lottery fraud, tech support scams, and grandparent fraud. These schemes exploit trust and vulnerability, often leaving victims with devastating financial losses.

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The prosecution is being led by Senior Trial Attorney Phil Toomajian and Trial Attorney Josh Rothman of the DOJ’s Consumer Protection Branch, with assistance from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, the FBI Legal Attaché in Poland, INTERPOL, and Polish authorities.

• “This extradition demonstrates our commitment to holding international fraudsters accountable and protecting seniors from schemes that can destroy lives,” the DOJ said.

This development follows recent reports of other Nigerians extradited to the US on similar charges. Earlier, Chukwuemeka Amachukwu, 39, was extradited from France to New York to face accusations of computer hacking, fraud, and identity theft.

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