The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama has sentenced Babatunde Ayeni to 10 years’ imprisonment and ordered him to pay approximately $20 million to victims of his scam, court filings obtained by Peoples Gazette showed.
Mr Ayeni, an internet fraudster, pleaded guilty to the fraud charge, leading the judge to hand him a 120-month sentence.
Although Mr Ayeni had stopped scamming people since April 2019, U.S. judge Terry Moorer on October 31 ordered him to pay $19,599,969 million as restitution to all the individuals and entities he defrauded.
The court waived the interest required on the restitution for Mr Ayeni, having determined that he “lacked the ability to pay.”
Mr Ayeni was asked to pay the restitution alongside co-conspirators Feyisayo Oyindola Oginsanwo and Yusuf Olasunkanmi Lasisi.
The U.S. immigration authority will determine whether Mr Ayeni will be deported immediately after serving his sentence or if he will be allowed to stay in America under three years of supervised release with stringent rules.
Mr Ayeni’s prosecution for fraud on foreign soil adds to a long list of Nigerians who have been jailed by various U.S. courts including Bola Bobo Chicago, Ray Hushpuppi, Mr Woodberry and so on.
Among the list of Nigerian fraudsters convicted in the U.S. was also Abidemi Rufai, an ally of Ogun governor Dapo Abiodun but was released last month.
