Nigerian man sentenced to 90 months imprisonment in US for fraud and money laundering

A Nigerian national, James Junior Aliyu, has been sentenced to 90 months in prison in the United States for his role in a large-scale wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

Aliyu, who was arrested and extradited from South Africa to the United States, is the last of three defendants to plead guilty to his role in a business email compromise (BEC) scheme.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the sentence in a statement on Saturday, March 21, 2026. 

In addition to his jail term, the court ordered him to forfeit $1.2 million and pay $2.4 million in restitution to victims affected by the fraud.

ICE further disclosed that Aliyu will be deported from the United State upon completion of his prison sentence.

“James Junior Aliyu, a Nigerian national, will serve a 90-month sentence for his role in a wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy after planning to hack business email servers,” the statement read. 

“Aliyu was extradited from South Africa to face justice. 

“He was slapped with a $1.2M forfeiture order and a $2.4M restitution order and will be removed from the United States when he completes his sentence.

“ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agents in Maryland and South Africa offices were proud to be part of the international team that investigated this case.”

Aliyu, who was residing in South Africa at the time of his criminal conduct, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. 

Eight other defendants previously pleaded guilty in the District of Maryland in separate cases related to the same conspiracy.

On June 24, 2019, a federal grand jury returned an indictment, charging Aliyu, Kosi Goodness Simon-Ebo, 30, and Henry Onyedikachi Echefu, 31, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. 

All three are Nigerian citizens who resided in South Africa at the time of the crimes. 

Federal authorities unsealed the indictment on July 6, 2022, upon the defendants’ arrests outside of the U.S. 

All three were extradited to the United States from outside the country to face their federal charges.

According to his plea agreement, from February 2017 until at least July 2017, Aliyu conspired with others to perpetrate a BEC scheme. 

Specifically, Aliyu and his co-conspirators, including co-conspirators residing in Maryland, gained unauthorized access to email accounts associated with individuals and businesses that they targeted. 

The co-conspirators sent false wiring instructions to the victims’ email accounts from “spoofed” emails — accounts associated with forged sender addresses — to deceive the victims into sending money to bank accounts controlled by the scheme’s perpetrators, which are called “drop accounts.”

Additionally, during the same timeframe, Aliyu and his co-conspirators plotted to commit money laundering. 

They conspired to disburse the fraudulently obtained funds into the drop accounts and to other accounts by initiating account transfers, withdrawing cash, obtaining cashier’s checks, and writing checks to other individuals and entities to hide the true ownership and source of the assets. 

As detailed in the plea agreement, the intended loss for transactions Aliyu was directly involved in was at least $4,162,211.65.

The actual loss resulting from these transactions was at least $1,570,475.

Aliyu directly controlled at least $1,194,565 of the funds they obtained from victims.

According to the plea agreement, Aliyu is required to pay a money judgment of at least $1,194,565, and restitution in the full amount of the victims’ losses, which the parties agree is at least $2,389,130.