A Nigerian national, Ehis Akhimie, has pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court for his involvement in an international fraud scheme that targeted hundreds of elderly Americans with false inheritance claims, resulting in losses exceeding $6 million.

The 41-year-old entered his guilty plea on June 17 before U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman in Miami, Florida, according to a statement released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs.

Court documents reveal that Akhimie was part of a coordinated syndicate that sent personalised letters to elderly individuals across the United States, falsely informing them they were heirs to multimillion-dollar inheritances from alleged distant relatives in Spain. The letters, often printed on counterfeit bank letterheads, instructed recipients to pay various fees, including delivery charges and taxes, as a prerequisite for receiving the supposed funds. However, no inheritances were ever paid.

“These fraudsters were preying on the hopes and vulnerabilities of elderly Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

In his confession, Akhimie acknowledged collaborating with an international network of fraudsters and U.S.-based accomplices, some of whom were former victims coerced into acting as money mules to receive and launder illicit proceeds. The scheme defrauded over 400 victims, many of whom were elderly and isolated.

The investigation, which involved the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, and Nigeria, successfully dismantled the fraud network. The U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and Office of International Affairs also contributed to securing arrests and extraditions.

“The Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch will continue to pursue, prosecute and bring to justice transnational criminals responsible for defrauding U.S. consumers, wherever they are located,” Shumate said. He praised international cooperation as critical to addressing such crimes.

Akhimie is among several individuals convicted in connection with the scam. Others include Ezennia Neboh, sentenced to 128 months in prison after extradition from Spain; Kennedy Ikponmwosa, sentenced to 97 months; and Emmanuel Samuel, Jerry Chucks Ozor, and Iheanyichukwu Jonathan Abraham, sentenced to 82, 87, and 90 months respectively in the United Kingdom. Amos Ezemma, paroled from Nigeria, was sentenced to 90 months in July 2024, while Okezie Bonaventure Ogbata, extradited from Portugal, received a 97-month sentence.

Bladismir Rojo, Acting Postal Inspector in Charge of the USPIS Miami Division, reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to protecting American consumers from transnational fraud.

Akhimie faces up to 20 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced later this year. The Justice Department urged families and individuals to remain vigilant and report suspicious inheritance claims, noting that such scams disproportionately affect vulnerable populations.