Olamide Shanu, a 35-year-old Nigerian, entered a guilty plea in the US to conspiracy to commit money laundering after taking part in romance fraud and sextortion operations that duped over 150 Americans.
The US Department of Justice said on Tuesday that Shanu entered a guilty plea in the District of Idaho on Monday.
Shanu and his accomplices gained over $2.5 million from the schemes, which implicated victims all around the country, according to the Justice Department.
The perpetrators of the sextortion scheme usually targeted male victims and coerced them into sending explicit photos of themselves.
Using fictitious identities on social media to create false emotional connections with their victims, the conspirators also preyed on older men and women through romance scams.
Court documents state that after gaining the victims’ trust and persuading them that they had a love future together, the conspirators would ask them for money, citing a variety of purportedly pressing financial demands.
According to the agency, the earnings from the schemes were transferred to co-conspirators in Nigeria after being laundered through many bitcoin wallet addresses and peer-to-peer payment apps.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division stated, “This case exposes a sophisticated international scheme that exploited Americans through romance fraud and sextortion, laundering millions in criminal proceeds.”
According to Duva, the department’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative was created to combat these kinds of schemes and prosecute the perpetrators.
The guilty plea, according to Bart M. Davis, US Attorney for the District of Idaho, showed efforts to prosecute hackers wherever they operated.
“This guilty plea, involving more than $2.5 million in laundered proceeds, reflects the committed efforts of our law enforcement partners and prosecutors to disrupt international criminal networks, protect victims, and ensure that cyber-enabled crime does not go unanswered,” Davis stated.
The Boise Police Department and the US Secret Service were involved in the investigation and are looking into the scams.
Shanu could receive a maximum term of 20 years in jail when he is sentenced on December 15.
The US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory considerations will be taken into account by a federal district court judge while determining his sentence.