A 40-year-old Nigerian national living in Houston has been sentenced to 95 months in federal prison for conspiring to launder more than $3.1 million generated by fraud schemes that targeted Americans.
Oluwasegun Baiyewu was sentenced Wednesday after a federal jury convicted him in August 2025 of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, he played a leading role in a network that converted illicit funds into used and salvaged vehicles purchased in the United States and then shipped to Nigeria.
The conspiracy ran from May 2020 to October 2021 and involved at least six other participants based in the United States and Nigeria. Members coordinated through encrypted messaging apps, including WhatsApp. They used proceeds from business email compromise, romance fraud, and unemployment insurance schemes to pay for the vehicles, which were exported for the benefit of the group.
In one case cited by prosecutors, the network helped move approximately $280,000 stolen from a Puerto Rican renewable energy company. Fraudsters deceived the firm into wiring the money to accounts they controlled; Baiyewu and his associates then applied those funds toward vehicle purchases that he arranged to ship overseas.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, and the FBI San Juan Cyber Task Force, with support from the National Unemployment Insurance Fraud Task Force. It formed part of the Justice Department’s broader efforts against international networks that move proceeds from cyber-enabled financial crimes across borders.
Prosecutors were Trial Attorneys Emily Powers and Richard Greene of the Criminal Division’s White Collar and Corporate Enforcement Section, working with Assistant U.S. Attorney Linet Olinghouse of the District of Puerto Rico. The matter falls under the Criminal Division’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative, which targets schemes such as romance, investment, government impersonation, and other financially motivated scams against Americans. The division is also a founding member of the Scam Center Strike Force, established in November 2025.
Authorities described the vehicle purchases and exports as a central method for concealing and transferring millions of dollars linked to the frauds.
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