KEY POINTS
- A Nigerian national received a prison sentence after breaking the law to steal R3.2 million from an American house buyer.
- The criminal activity involved a complex cyber-based financial fraud scheme with parallel money moving operations.
- Samson accepted a 10-year term for theft and received a following offence sentencing of 10 years due to money laundering.
The Nigerian citizen Abdul Olatunji Samson received his punishment in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court at Palm Ridge Johannesburg following a guilty verdict for theft and money laundering offenses.
Through cyber-enabled fraud Samson successfully stole R3.2 million from an American person who wanted to purchase a home.
Details of the fraud scheme
The court already had Samson in custody for twelve years after he was convicted of fraud earlier before they charged him for this new offense.
A joint investigation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and United States Secret Service (USSS) together with South Africa’s Hawks (Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation) began when the FBI received a cyber-fraud report.
Through email hacking Samson diverted the victim’s conveyancing attorney’s communications to redirect their money into an unlawful Bank of America account.
The victim sent over $200,000 (equivalent to R3.2 million) in funds by mistake to fraudulent Bank of America accounts that later received laundering transactions in various South African bank accounts.
Details of the crime that led to Nigerian fraudster sentenced
Samson obtained personal profits amounting to R1.9 million from the stolen money. During sentencing Senior State Prosecutor Ronel Dookun emphasized that such complicated offenses cause substantial societal damage since the country faces international financial condemnation because of its grey-listing status.
Samson received ten years imprisonment related to theft offenses and another ten years because of money laundering accusations.
NPA’s perspective on complex fraud cases
According to the National Prosecuting Authority international fraud and corruption cases are difficult to find along with hard to trace and prove in court and they generally need multiple years to finalize. According to the NPA guilty plea admissions are exceptionally difficult to obtain in cases of this complexity thus leading to drawn-out court proceedings.
