CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Two Nigerian nationals were sentenced to prison Tuesday for laundering millions of dollars in criminal proceeds tied to schemes targeting hundreds of victims, the Department of Justice announced. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western North Carolina, Olumide Olorunfunmi, 40, and Emmanuel Unuigbe, 43, were each sentenced to 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. In addition to the prison terms imposed, the defendants were each ordered to pay more than $4.6 million in restitution.
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Both defendants previously pleaded guilty to the charges.
According to court documents and court proceedings, from 2020 through 2023, Olorunfunmi conspired with Unuigbe and others to launder the criminal proceeds of various illegal activities, including romance scams that typically targeted elderly victims and business email compromise schemes.
The scheme led to 125 victims transferring more than $4.5 million of proceeds stemming from illegal activities. Olorunfunmi and Unuigbe profited by keeping a portion of the criminal proceeds obtained through the schemes. They also profited by agreeing to “pay” for the domestic deposits received by others by transferring Nigerian Naira from accounts the co-conspirators controlled in Nigeria to other accounts in Nigeria…