Two Nigerians, Nosayamen Iyalekhue and Esogie Osawaru have pleaded guilty for defrauding victims using various online scams during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Osawaru pleaded guilty 12 November, Iyalekhue, 33, pleaded guilty to one count charge of wire fraud on Thursday.
U.S. Senior District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel in Boston, Massachusetts has scheduled sentencing for March 4, 2021.
Both risk 20 year jail terms.
Iyalekhue, a former teller at TD Bank in Norwood, Massachusetts from 2018-2019, was arrested in June 2020 along with 27 year-old Osawaru.
Iyalekhue and Osawaru participated from 2016 in a series of romance, pandemic unemployment insurance, and other online scams designed to defraud victims by convincing them to send money to accounts controlled by them.
They were caught when they started having unemployment benefits deposited into their accounts in May 2020.
To carry out the scams, the defendants used false foreign passports in the names of others, but with their photos, to open numerous bank accounts, and in turn directed the victims to send money to these accounts.
Iyalekhue and Osawaru then rapidly withdrew the victims’ money from various bank branches and ATMs, often multiple times during a single day.
The schemes included collecting unemployment insurance in the name of others during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The charging statute provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater, and forfeiture.
The defendant is also subject to deportation proceedings.
Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division made the announcement.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom of Lelling’s Securities, Financial and Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case
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