A Nigerian, Okpako Mike Diamreyan, has been sentenced to more than 12 years in a United States prison for orchestrating an advance payment scam that swindled victims out of more than $1.3m (N180m).

Diamreyan, was also ordered to pay more than N150m to the 67 victims he duped from 2004 to 2009.

According to US prosecutors, Diamreyan and his accomplice worked doggedly to dupe their victims, calling one victim more than 1,200 times over a two-year period.

Diamreyan claimed to have various consignments stored in Ghana worth millions of dollars and promised his victims a 20-per cent commission in exchange for financial help in transferring funds to the US.

He reportedly began committing advance-fee fraud in Nigeria and Ghana no later than 2004. In 2008, he came to the United States, where he married a young woman who supported him by having two jobs and going to school at night.

Instead of taking advantage of this opportunity to start a new life, the defendant continued participating in the fraud scheme and, in fact, used his presence in the United States to further the fraud.

According to court papers monitored online, Diamreyan immigrated to the United States on May 30, 2008 and married a lady, Martine Javier, on June 19, 2008.

He was arrested on August 27, 2009 and convicted by a jury of three counts of wire fraud on February 16, 2010. Starting no later than August 2004, and continuing until his arrest in August 2009, he participated in an advance-fee fraud scheme both in Ghana and the US.

US prosecutors disclosed that the advance fee fraud involved, ” Sending email messages to potential victims about large sums of money or other assets; making false and fraudulent representations about advance fees that the victims had to pay to obtain the money or assets, among others.




http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201009052315743

Good, he could have been 100 yrs, who cares? No body!!!

Another one. When will Nigerians realise crime doesn't pay?