Nigerian green card holder jailed 32 months, faces deportation over business email fraud scheme

A 26-year-old Nigerian national living in the United States on a Green Card has been sentenced to 32 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $202,000 in restitution for his role in a business email compromise fraud and money laundering scheme, after which he will be deported back to Nigeria.

Ayobami Omoniyi was sentenced for laundering fraud proceeds through an unlicensed money transmitting business by U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen. He had earlier pleaded guilty to the charges on August 19, 2024, following an investigation by the FBI’s Houston and Bryan Resident Agency and the Houston Police Department. The court also ordered Omoniyi to pay $202,273.80 in restitution to victims. Not being a US citizen, he is expected to be removed from the country following the completion of his prison term.

At sentencing, the court heard that Omoniyi had been committing crimes since arriving in the United States and that he had been a recruiter for the scheme. In 2021, Omoniyi and others operated an unlicensed money transmitting business that received and transferred funds from business email compromise victims, including a fishing company in Australia. Victims received spoofed emails that appeared to come from legitimate businesses and were tricked into sending payments to accounts the conspirators controlled.

Court proceedings revealed that Omoniyi acted as a recruiter, helping facilitate the movement of money through multiple bank accounts. He admitted to receiving victims’ funds and, for a fee, transmitting the fraud proceeds to other members of the scheme, highlighting the structured, hierarchical nature of the fraud operation.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Bryan Resident Agency and the Houston Police Department, with assistance from the Australian Federal Police, whose involvement underscores the transnational reach of the scheme. The case was prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Belinda Beek of the Southern District of Texas.

Omoniyi was not the only Nigerian national implicated in the broader conspiracy. A co-conspirator, identified as Adiakpan, was separately charged in connection with the same scheme and faced up to 20 years in federal prison on conspiracy and money laundering charges and up to five years for illegal money transmission, with each count carrying a potential maximum fine of $250,000.

Omoniyi has been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility. His case adds to a growing list of Nigerians convicted in the United States for cyber-enabled financial fraud — a pattern that continues to draw international scrutiny and reputational damage to the country despite ongoing efforts by Nigerian authorities, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, to crack down on internet fraud domestically.