Nigerian couple jailed for 21 years in the US for online fraud

It was gathered that 58-year-old
Gbenga Benson Ogundele and his wife,
42-year-old Mojisola Oluwakemi
Popoola, were recently arraigned and
sentenced to a joint prison term of 252
months (21 years).
The couple who live in Laurel,
Maryland, were charged with
conspiracy to commit wire fraud and
money laundering arising from a
scheme to defraud unsuspecting victims.
While Ogundele was also charged with
aggravated identity theft and sentenced
to 234 months (19.5 years) in jail, his
wife Moji, was sentenced to 18 months,
after which they'll both have 3 years of
supervised release.
Mr Ogundele and Mrs Popoola received a jail
sentence totalling 21 years, for defrauding
people of millions of Dollars
The verdict was handed down to them
on November 18, 2016, after a 17-day
trial presided over by Judge Grimm.
Mojisola's brother, Babatunde
Emmanuel Popoola, was also given a 34
to 12 years prison sentence on the same
charges of fraud. Judge Grimm also
presided over his case, and sentenced
him on March 20, 2017.

The trio were indicted by a federal
grand jury in 2015, alongside some
Nigerian men identified as Mukhtar
Danjuma Haruna, aka “Mukky”, 41-
year-old Victor Oyewumi Oloyede, 58-
year-old Olusegun Charles Ogunseye,
aka “Charles O”, 33-year-old Adeyinka
Olubunmi Awolaja Jr., 48-year-old
Olusola Olla, and 26-year-old Olufemi
Wilfred Williams. It gathered that from evidence
presented at their trial, they had
browsed through several online dating
websites where they met their
unsuspecting victims and entered into
romantic relationships with them. They
exchanged calls, emails, internet chat
messages with their victims all around
the United States.

They had gone to the extent of using
false stories and promises to convince
their victims to part with their hard-
earned money. They used fake hospital
bills, fake foreign taxes, false problems
with overseas businesses and even
asked for plane trips to visit their
victims.
They opened bank accounts used in
depositing the millions of Dollars
received from their victims. They asked
for amounts ranging from $1,720 to
$30,000, from their victims.

While Awolaja, Ogunseye and Williams
pleaded guilty and are awaiting their
own sentence, Oloyede received a 234
months prison sentence.
Ogundele was asked to forfeit
$2,195,103.36, while his wife Mojisola,
was asked to forfeit $165,000 and pay
restitution of $34,100. Emmanuel was
also asked to pay restitution of
$465,170.76.
Meanwhile, the former GMD of NNPC,
Andrew Yakubu, was recently arraigned
in court by the EFCC, over fraud and
false assets declaration: