How Tobechukwu Nnebocha’s journey from Poland ended in U.S. jail

A Nigerian national, Tochukwu Albert Nnebocha, 43, has been extradited from Poland to the United States to face charges of running an international fraud ring that swindled elderly Americans out of their life savings with a fake inheritance scheme.

Nnebocha made his first court appearance on Monday, September 29, 2025, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjolique Lett in Miami. He had been arrested in Poland back in April following an indictment filed in the Southern District of Florida, and has remained in custody ever since.

According to U.S. prosecutors, Nnebocha and his associates spent more than five years masterminding a transnational inheritance fraud. They allegedly mailed personalized letters to senior citizens across America, claiming to represent a Spanish bank and informing victims they were entitled to multimillion-dollar inheritances from long-deceased relatives in Spain.

The catch is,  before touching the bogus fortune, victims were told to pay upfront “fees, taxes and clearance costs” to prevent government questioning. Many unsuspecting seniors fell for the scam, sending their hard-earned money into what investigators described as a complex web of transfers. Former victims in the United States were even tricked into serving as middlemen to forward the funds overseas.

Court filings say that no victim ever received a dime of the promised inheritance.

Nnebocha is now facing conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, alongside substantive counts of both crimes. If convicted, he could be jailed for up to 20 years. Sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge under U.S. guidelines.

Two other Nigerians linked to the fraud have already been sentenced. Okezie Bonaventure Ogbata, extradited from Portugal, and Ehis Lawrence Akhimie, extradited from the United Kingdom, both bagged 97 months in prison earlier this year.

The investigation was led by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with help from the FBI, INTERPOL, Polish authorities and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

The U.S. Justice Department stressed that the case forms part of its wider campaign to shield American seniors from foreign-based scams — including romance fraud, fake lottery winnings, tech support hoaxes, and “grandparent scams” where criminals pose as desperate relatives in need of cash.