*\u201c<\/b>39-year-old conman part of a group of fraudsters sending personalized letters to elderly victims in the United States, falsely claiming that the sender was a representative of a bank in Spain, that the recipient was entitled to receive a multimillion-dollar inheritance left for the recipient by a family member who had died years before in Portugal\u201d-U.S.Justice Dept<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n *\u201cThe Department of Justice\u2019s Consumer Protection Branch will continue to pursue, prosecute, and bring to justice transnational criminals responsible for defrauding U.S. consumers, wherever they are located\u201d<\/b>– Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Division\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n *BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/AMERICA Senior Investigative Editor<\/em><\/b><\/p>\n A 39-YEAR-OLD Nigerian has put himself into trouble and is now facing the consequences of his crime in the United States where he had been extradited to answer for everything he has done. EMMANUEL SAMUEL has been prosecuted, convicted of crimes and sentenced to 82 months in prison.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n According to court documents, Emmanuel Samuel, 39, was part of a group of fraudsters that sent personalized letters to elderly victims in the United States, falsely claiming that the sender was a representative of a bank in Spain and that the recipient was entitled to receive a multimillion-dollar inheritance left for the recipient by a family member who had died years before in Portugal. Victims were told that before they could receive their purported inheritance, they were required to send money for delivery fees, taxes, and payments to avoid questioning from government authorities. Victims sent money to the defendants through a complex web of U.S.-based former victims. The<\/span> defendants convinced these former victims to receive money from new victims and then forward the fraud proceeds to others.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThe Department of Justice\u2019s Consumer Protection Branch will continue to pursue, prosecute, and bring to justice transnational criminals responsible for defrauding U.S. consumers, wherever they are located,\u201d said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Division. \u201cWorking together, U.S. and foreign law enforcement can and will thwart schemes such as the one charged in this case and prevent further loss to American victims.\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) has a long tradition of protecting American citizens from these types of schemes and bringing those responsible to justice,\u201d said Postal Inspector in Charge Juan A. Vargas of the USPIS Miami Division. \u201cThis result is a testament to the dedicated partnership between the Department of Justice\u2019s Consumer Protection Branch, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the USPIS, to protect our citizens from these scams.\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn my law enforcement career, I\u2019ve investigated and arrested countless criminals involved in abhorrent activity but nothing measures to supporting HSI agents as they dismantle organizations in foreign countries whose sole purpose is targeting unsuspecting elderly victims to steal their money,\u201d said Special Agent in Charge Scott Brown of HSI Arizona. \u201cI thank every agent that worked tirelessly to ensure these criminals are brought to justice for their actions \u2013 families are forever impacted all because of these felons’ actions as they targeted the elderly causing pain and financial ruin.\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams sentenced Samuel on June 21, 2023 in Miami. She also ordered Samuel to make restitution payments to victims of his offenses.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Two additional co-defendants, Jonathan Abraham and Jerry Ozor, previously were convicted in the case. They are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Williams in the coming months.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n The Consumer Protection Branch, USPIS, and HSI are investigating the case.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Senior Trial Attorney Phil Toomajian and Trial Attorneys Josh Rothman and Brianna Gardner of the Justice Department\u2019s Consumer Protection Branch are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department\u2019s Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Europol, and authorities from the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal all provided critical assistance.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has been a victim of financial fraud, help is standing by at the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). This U.S. Department of Justice hotline, managed by the Office for Victims of Crime, is staffed by experienced professionals who provide personalized support to callers by assessing the needs of the victim and identifying relevant next steps. C<\/span><\/b>ase managers will identify appropriate reporting agencies, provide information to callers to assist them in reporting, connect callers directly with appropriate agencies, and provide resources and referrals, on a case-by-case basis.\u00a0 Reporting is the first step. Reporting can help authorities identify those who commit fraud and reporting certain financial losses due to fraud as soon as possible can increase the likelihood of recovering losses. The hotline is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. English, Spanish, and other languages are available.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n CERTAINLY, Good journalism costs a lot of money. Without doubt, only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government. We are ready to hold every corrupt government accountable to the citizens.<\/b> To continually enjoy free access to the best investigative journalism in Nigeria, we are requesting of you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavor.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n By contributing to NAIJA STANDARD NEWSPAPER, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all without fear or favor.<\/b><\/p>\n Your donation is voluntary \u2014 please decide how much and how often you want to give. For offline donation, email: letters@nigeriastandardnewspaper.com or call +2348037128048 (Nigeria) or +16825834890 (United States of America)<\/b><\/p>\n [pff-paystack id=<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DISGRACEFUL: Nigerian extradited from Britain, EMMANUEL SAMUEL sentenced to 82 Months in Prison for Defrauding Elderly Americans through FAKE Inheritance Scheme\u00a0 *\u201c39-year-old conman part of a group of fraudsters sending personalized letters to elderly victims in the United States, falsely claiming that the sender was a representative of a bank in Spain, that the recipient […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11834,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9533\/revisions\/11834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/emma-uk-one.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>Samuel who<\/b> was previously extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom, was sentenced to 82 months in prison on June 21, 2023 for his role in a transnational inheritance fraud scheme.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n