MIAMI, Sept. 30 (AGCNewsNet) – Nigerian national Tochuwku Albert Nnebocha, 43, has been extradited from Poland to the United States to face federal charges in connection with a transnational inheritance fraud scheme that allegedly defrauded elderly Americans of millions of dollars.

Nnebocha, who was arrested in Poland in April 2025 on an indictment filed in the Southern District of Florida, made his first appearance Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjolique Lett in Miami. He has remained in custody since his arrest.

According to prosecutors, Nnebocha and his associates operated a years-long scheme in which they sent personalized letters to U.S. seniors, falsely claiming to represent a Spanish bank holding multimillion-dollar inheritances. Victims were told they had to pay fees, taxes, and other charges before receiving the funds. Instead, the money was routed through intermediaries, often themselves former victims, and never returned.

Nnebocha faces charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, as well as substantive mail and wire fraud. If convicted, he could receive up to 20 years in prison.

Two co-defendants, Okezie Bonaventure Ogbata, extradited from Portugal, and Ehis Lawrence Akhimie, extradited from the United Kingdom, have already pleaded guilty and were sentenced by Judge Roy K. Altman to 97 months in prison.

The case is part of a wider U.S. Justice Department crackdown on scams targeting older Americans, including romance, lottery, tech support, and grandparent fraud schemes. Investigators from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) are leading the probe, with support from INTERPOL, Polish authorities, and the FBI’s office in Warsaw.

Federal officials encouraged victims of elder fraud to seek assistance through the National Elder Fraud Hotline (1-833-372-8311), which provides multilingual support and resources for reporting financial scams.

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