Fraud: US court sentences Nigerian to jail, orders repayment of $25,056

A US court has sentenced a Nigerian national, Segun Otaru, 27 to four years and three months in jail without parole.

Parole is the temporary or permanent release of a prisoner before the expiry of a sentence, on the promise of good behaviour.

Otaru was jailed for his role in a large fraud conspiracy that used various internet scams to defraud victims, reports local news website, KY3.

Apart from the jail term, US Chief District Judge Beth Phillips, who presided over the court also ordered Otaru to pay $25,056 in restitution and to forfeit the same amount to the government.

Court documents revealed that Otaru entered the United States in April 2013, under apparently fraudulent pretences, using a student visa.

The year after entering the United States, he reportedly obtained lawful permanent status by marrying a citizen.

Otaru had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aiding and abetting the theft of public money on May 2, 2019.

According to court documents, over the course of his five years in the United States, Otaru used 13 aliases and multiple bank accounts opened under false identities in order to move funds and perpetrate various frauds as a part of an organized crime network.