A United States court has sentenced Nigerian citizen and U.S. permanent resident, Adedayo Fateru, to 87 months in prison for his role in a money laundering operation involving about $1.7 million in proceeds from fraudulent schemes.
The sentence, announced by United States Attorney Dan Bishop of the Middle District of North Carolina, also affected three other individuals linked to the criminal network.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), Fateru will serve seven years and three months behind bars, followed by three years of supervised release.
The agency added that after completing his prison term, Fateru would be handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for possible removal proceedings under U.S. immigration laws.
Court documents cited by the DoJ revealed that Fateru, along with Lisa Farrow, William Atwater, and Victoria Stone, was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and the United States Postal Inspection Service over their involvement in a money laundering ring.
The group was accused of laundering funds obtained through different wire fraud activities, including business email compromise (BEC) scams, altered cheque schemes, fraudulent automated clearing house (ACH) transactions, fake applications for COVID-19 economic injury disaster loans (EIDL), and unemployment benefit fraud.
The court also handed down sentences to Fateru’s accomplices. Farrow received 45 months in prison and three years of supervised release, Atwater was sentenced to 33 months imprisonment with two years of supervised release, while Stone received 25 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.