{"id":176057,"date":"2026-04-07T21:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/176057\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T21:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T21:02:08","slug":"fraud-racket-stretching-to-nigeria-exposed-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/176057\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraud racket stretching to Nigeria exposed in California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/25\/opinion\/hospice-fraud-could-haunt-newsoms-ambitions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sprawling fraud ring has been exposed in California<\/a>, with its tangled web stretching all the way to Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, a Bakersfield resident confessed to funneling more than $5 million to contacts in China and Africa.<\/p>\n<p>NorCal man Ifeanyi Emmanuel Ugwu, 49, admitted to operating an <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/28\/us-news\/treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-moves-to-cut-off-illegal-migrants-from-tax-benefits-and-cross-border-money-transfers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">unlicensed money transmitting<\/a> business, according to the US Department of Justice, Eastern District of California.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.58024691;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39017319\" width=\"932\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/darkweb-darknet-hacking-concept-hacker-48884307.jpg\" alt=\"A hand holding a smartphone, with glowing green code projected onto the hand and visible in the background.\" class=\"wp-image-39017319\"  \/>Officials reported that several people who sent funds to Ifeanyi Emmanuel Ugwu were victims of cybercrimes and fraud. terovesalainen \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>From December 2020 to August 2023, Ugwu ran Franklin Finance Inc., opening and managing nearly 20 bank accounts across nine banks and financial institutions.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities revealed he collected over $5 million from more than 100 individuals in the United States, then sent the money to China, Nigeria and beyond, without the proper license.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia&#8217;s top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Ugwu maintained his unlicensed operation by deceiving individuals, banks and financial institutions to conceal his activities.<\/p>\n<p>Officials reported that several people who sent funds to Ugwu were victims of <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/23\/us-news\/azerbaijan-national-anar-rustamov-scammed-medicare-out-of-90-million-feds\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cybercrimes and fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ugwu pleaded guilty to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.<\/p>\n<p>Sentencing is scheduled for July 27. Ugwu faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.<\/p>\n<p>Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters <\/p>\n<p>California Post News: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheCaliforniaPost\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@CaliforniaPost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TikTok<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">X<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@thecaliforniapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029Vb6a2IV1NCrL6q2AWq0E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">WhatsApp<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/linkedin.com\/company\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a><br \/>California Post Sports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/capostsports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/capostsports\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@capostsports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TikTok<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@CaliforniaPostSports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/capostsports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">X<\/a><br \/>California Post  <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Opinion<\/a> <br \/>California Post Newsletters: <a href=\"https:\/\/email.nypost.com\/#california-post\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sign up here!<\/a><br \/>California Post App: <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/california-post\/id6751343487\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Download here!<\/a><br \/>Home delivery: <a href=\"https:\/\/subscribe.californiapost.com\/defaultCAP\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up here!<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/california-post\/id6751343487\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><br \/><\/a>Page Six Hollywood: <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/hollywood-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sign up here!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sprawling fraud ring has been exposed in California, with its tangled web stretching all the way to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[45],"tags":[30339,235,58472,8628,31146,122,3265,42114],"class_list":["post-176057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nigeria","tag-california","tag-china","tag-finances","tag-fraud","tag-metro","tag-nigeria","tag-us-news","tag-wire-fraud"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116365449139667843","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}