Nigerian extradited from South Africa jailed in US for $4.1 million wire fraud

In a statement on Saturday, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Aliyu was ordered to forfeit $1.2 million and return $2.4 million as compensation to the victims.

The immigration agency said the Nigerian will be deported from the US after completing his prison sentence.

Case

In July 2022, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), with the assistance of members of the South African Police Service (SAPS), arrested Aliu on charges of defrauding dozens of American citizens.

Aliyu was arrested in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Nigerian national is said to be part of a cyber crime gang involved in phishing, internet scams and money laundering.

After Aliyu was extradited to the US, he pleaded guilty to the charges against him.

Eight other defendants, who were co-conspirators, also pleaded guilty in the District of Maryland to separate counts related to the same conspiracy.

Prosecutors had said Aliyu and his co-conspirators gained unauthorized access to email accounts belonging to individuals and businesses from February 2017 to July 2017.

The co-conspirators, who are US residents, were said to have sent false wiring instructions to victims' email accounts from “fake” emails – accounts linked to fake sender addresses – in order to dupe victims into sending money to bank accounts controlled by the scheme's perpetrators.

Prosecutors said the Nigerian national was directly involved in wire fraud amounting to at least $4,162,211.