US Court Jails Nigerian Six Years For Florida Real Estate Scam
- Orders His Deportation After Serving Term
A United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida has sentenced a Nigerian national, Uwa Nosakhare, to six years imprisonment for fraud charges in a Florida real estate scam.
Nosakhare had pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated identity theft and mail fraud in January following fraudulent attempts by the defendant to sell several properties located in Palm Beach County in Florida without the owners’ authorisation, court documents showed.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida, between April 2022 and April 2023, the 26-year-old and his gang stole personal identifiable information of their victims without them knowing.
The convict alongside his friends used the information to create fake driver’s licences, notary credentials, bank account statements, and other property sale documents.
Following each successful fraudulent property sale, Nosakhare and his gang provided buyers with wire instructions to transfer the sale proceeds to bank accounts controlled by those involved in the scheme, raking up $143,000 in the process, the U.S.
Court documents revealed that Nosakhare was first identified by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office after he was caught on video at FedEx locations sending fake documents, with the findings quickly forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which led to a grand jury indictment against him on fraud charges in July 2024.
He was subsequently arrested by Homeland Security Investigations four months later after he attempted to flee to Canada upon learning that authorities were on him and ended up striking a deal with the prosecution by pleading guilty to his charges without going to trial for a reduced sentence.
Delivering his judgment, Judge Donald Middlebrooks sentenced him to six years imprisonment and three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution.
The judge also ordered that the defendant be deported back to Nigeria upon completion of his sentence.
Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.
