Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
A Nigerian national extradited from the United Kingdom has pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiracy to commit money laundering for his role in a sprawling sextortion and romance fraud operation that defrauded approximately 150 American victims and generated more than $2.5 million in illicit proceeds, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Olamide Shanu, 35, entered the plea on Monday before a federal court in the District of Idaho, where he was prosecuted as part of the Criminal Division’s Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative. According to court documents, Shanu and his co-conspirators ran an international scheme that combined financially motivated sextortion with romance fraud, targeting victims across the United States, including at least one individual in Idaho.
In the sextortion component, the conspirators typically targeted male victims, persuaded them to send sexual images of themselves, and then threatened to send those images to the victims’ friends and family unless payments were made. The tactics follow a pattern documented by the FBI in recent years, in which young men and teenage boys are lured into sharing intimate images and then subjected to relentless demands for money under threat of exposure. The Justice Department said the extortion was carried out against numerous victims across the country. In the romance scams, Shanu and his co-conspirators used fake identities on social media to establish deceptive emotional relationships with victims, typically older women and men. They gained the victims’ trust, convinced them of a romantic future together, and then persuaded them to send money based on purportedly urgent financial needs.
Proceeds from the schemes were laundered through peer-to-peer payment applications and several cryptocurrency wallet addresses before being transferred to co-conspirators in Nigeria, according to the Justice Department. The use of cryptocurrency and peer-to-peer transfers reflects the increasingly sophisticated methods employed by West African cybercrime networks to move illicit funds across borders while obscuring their origins.
“This case exposes a sophisticated international scheme that exploited Americans through sextortion and romance fraud, laundering millions in criminal proceeds,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Criminals, like Olamide Shanu, who prey on vulnerable victims in this manner rob them of their savings and sense of decency.” U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis for the District of Idaho said the extradition and guilty plea sent “a clear message that those who exploit victims and launder millions in illicit proceeds will face serious consequences.” Assistant Director Brent Daniels of the U.S. Secret Service’s Office of Field Operations described financially motivated sextortion as “a heinous crime that preys on fear, shame, and trust to exploit victims in deeply personal ways.”
Shanu’s path to a U.S. courtroom was circuitous. He was extradited from the United Kingdom, where he had been held in custody, following an indictment that included charges of wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. The National Extradition Unit of the UK’s National Crime Agency facilitated his transfer to the United States. He initially appeared in federal court in Boise in September 2025, and his prosecution has proceeded over the past year. Shanu pleaded guilty to the single count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 15 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine his sentence after considering U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The U.S. Secret Service and the Boise Police Department investigated the case.
The case is part of a broader and alarming trend of financially motivated sextortion originating from West Africa, particularly Nigeria and Ivory Coast. The FBI has reported a more than 1,000 per cent increase in such incidents over an 18-month period, and law enforcement authorities have received more than 7,000 reports of online incidents involving minors in the past year, resulting in at least three suicides. According to U.S. data cited at a meeting between the U.S. Consulate and Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in July 2026, cybercriminal networks have caused nearly $65 million in losses and have been linked to the suicides of more than 20 minors. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children receives almost 100 reports of financial sextortion per day, or around 33,000 each year since 2021.
The human toll behind these statistics has been documented in a series of prosecutions. In July 2026, Afeez Olatunji Adewale, 27, was sentenced to 60 months in prison in Philadelphia for money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud related to the sexual extortion and death of a young man. In February 2026, Samuel Abiodun was sentenced to five years in the United States after pleading guilty to his role in an online sextortion scheme that led to the death of a teenage boy. The FBI has arrested 22 Nigerians allegedly involved in a financially motivated sextortion scheme blamed for more than 20 teen suicides in the United States since 2021. In a separate case, two Nigerian brothers pleaded guilty to sexually extorting teen boys and young men in Michigan. Meta has taken down approximately 63,000 Instagram accounts in Nigeria running sexual extortion scams and removed thousands of Facebook groups and pages used to organise them.
The scheme Shanu participated in operated on a transnational scale, with victims scattered across the United States and proceeds flowing through digital payment systems and cryptocurrency wallets before reaching Nigeria. The use of cryptocurrency has made it more difficult for law enforcement to trace funds, but the prosecution of Shanu demonstrates that international cooperation and extradition can bring perpetrators to justice. The case also underscores the role of the Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative, launched by the Justice Department to confront these threats by dismantling networks and ensuring accountability.
For the approximately 150 victims identified in the case, the guilty plea represents a measure of justice, though the harm inflicted through sextortion often extends far beyond financial loss. Victims of sextortion frequently experience severe psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, and in some cases, suicidal ideation. The threat of exposure to friends and family, combined with the shame and isolation that victims often feel, makes sextortion a particularly cruel form of exploitation. The Justice Department’s reference to Shanu’s crimes as robbing victims of their “sense of decency” captures the intimate violation that characterises this form of fraud.
Shanu’s sentencing on December 15 will determine the length of his imprisonment and whether he faces additional penalties or restitution orders. The maximum penalty of 20 years reflects the seriousness with which U.S. authorities view money laundering in connection with sextortion and romance fraud. As he awaits sentencing, the case stands as the latest example of how Nigerian-based cybercrime networks have expanded their reach into American communities, exploiting digital platforms and financial technologies to inflict harm across borders. For the 150 Americans who fell victim to the scheme, the guilty plea offers a measure of accountability, but the scars of the experience will remain long after Shanu’s sentence is pronounced.
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