Nigerian Okechukwu Valentine Osuji was sentenced to eight years in prison on Thursday for his involvement in a $6 million fraud.

According to court documents and statements made in the New Haven, Connecticut court, the 39-year-old Osuji and his co-conspirators operated a business email compromise scheme across multiple countries, including the United States. They targeted specific individuals and businesses by masquerading as trustworthy entities in electronic communications to obtain money.

The scheme involved witting and unwitting “money mules” who received fraud proceeds in their bank accounts and then either transferred those funds to accounts under the co-conspirators’ control or converted the stolen proceeds into cash for further transfer.

The bank accounts were controlled by Osuji and his co-conspirators. The victims included a Connecticut-based financial company, a Colorado-based lending company, an Alaska-based nonprofit performing arts organization, a New York-based food and beverage company, and many others.

Over the years of the scheme’s operation, numerous victims were tricked into transferring funds into bank accounts they believed were under the control of legitimate recipients as part of normal business operations.

The scheme also involved the exploitation of elderly individuals through romance scams, some of whom were unwitting money mules. One woman testified at trial that she was duped into sending her own personal savings and income, including Social Security checks, to an individual she believed to be her romantic partner, but who was actually one of Osuji’s co-conspirators.

Osuji’s alleged co-conspirator, John Wamuigah, remains in Malaysia and is pending extradition proceedings. An indictment is merely an allegation, and Wamuigah is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. Another co-conspirator, Tolulope Bodunde, also a Nigerian citizen, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on October 16 to two years in prison.