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Nigerian fintech founders jailed in US over $167million money laundering

Nigerian fintech founders jailed in US over $167million money laundering

Posted: July 18, 2022 at 7:54 am   /   by   /   comments (0)

The senior executives of Ping Express, a fintech business in the United States, were sentenced to 27 months in jail for violating money laundering regulations.

Anslem Oshionebo and Opeyemi Odeyale, Nigerian fintech leaders, pled guilty to violating money laundering regulations after moving $167 million to Africa unnoticed in less than three years.

While Oshionebo is the CEO, Oyedale is the Chief Operating Officer, and both are suspected of laundering $160 million to Nigeria.

The US Department of Justice recently confirmed this, adding that Ping Express failed to get adequate information about the sources or motivations of the monies engaged in the transactions, or the consumers initiating the transfers.

It was also said that some of the money moved to Nigeria was thought to be the result of online fraud.

It was also said that the company’s Information Technology/Business Development Manager, Aleoghena Okhumale, pled guilty to intentionally sending unlawfully obtained monies.

Oshionebo and Oyedale were both condemned to 27 months in federal prison, but Okhumale received a 42-month term.

Ping Express also agreed to conduct money-transfer transactions in areas where it was not licensed, such as Nevada, New Jersey, Utah, West Virginia, and Connecticut.

Furthermore, according to the DOJ, one Collins Orogun revealed last week that he took a commission in exchange for moving money for ‘romantic scam’ fraudsters and other offenders.

In one case, an Indiana lady contributed $15,000 to ‘Carson Jacks,’ a claimed oil roughneck in the Gulf of Mexico she met online and fell in love with after he told her he had malaria.

Another Indiana lady donated $6,300 to ‘Thomas Ken,’ a putative Irish ship captain she met online, to repair his ship.

Orogun received more than $1.3 million in cash, cashier’s cheques, and wire transfers into multiple US bank accounts he controlled over the course of two years. He swiftly transferred more than $1 million of the monies to Africa using Ping Express.

“He faces up to 20 years in federal prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on January 23, 2023,” according to the statement.

The firm Ping Express is presently facing five years of probation and a fine of up to $500,000. Sentencing has been set for December 19, 2022.

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