Defendant Lands 100 Months in Prison for Role in $70M Lawyer Scam
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Emmanuel Ekhator, a 42-year-old Nigerian national, was sentenced to 100 months in federal prison for his involvement in a multi-national scheme that bilked more than $70 million from U.S. and Canadian lawyers.
Ekhator, who is also a resident of Mississauga, Canada, and Benin, Nigeria, pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. He was ordered to pay $11,092,028 restitution to victims and serve a three-year term of supervised release following his incarceration.
According to the information provided by the prosecutor during the guilty plea proceeding, Ekhator was part of an attorney collection scam. Conspirators contacted U.S. and Canadian law firms by e-mail claiming to be individuals or businesses outside North America who were owed money by entities in the U.S. and asking for legal representation to collect the money.
Once the law firm agreed to represent the out-of-country “client”, the law firm would be contacted by the U.S. entity purportedly owing money with an offer to pay the “client” by check. The “client” would instruct the law firm to deposit the check in the law firm’s trust account, retain the law firm’s fee, and wire the remaining funds to accounts in Asia.
The check that was then mailed to the law firm would be a counterfeit check, a fact that would be discovered only after funds from the law firm’s trust account had been wired to the Asian bank. The counterfeit checks often included a telephone number for the financial institution, which lawyers attempting to determine the validity of the check would call only to reach another conspirator who would falsely verify the check.
Ekhator’s co-defendant, Yvette Mathurin, has been charged in connection with this aspect of the conspiracy and is awaiting extradition from Canada. Investigation continues against other members of the large, multi-national conspiracy. Another co-conspirator, Kingsley Osagie, was arrested as he arrived in the Atlanta area from Nigeria and is currently awaiting trial in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Ekhator was arrested in Nigeria in August 2010, and extradited to the United States in August 2011. This case was investigated by a task force including the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Secret Service, the Toronto Police Services, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy H. Fawcett.
Related Federal Cases
- Emily Wilson, Investment Adviser Fraud, Pennsylvania, 2023 · Virginia
- Bruce Choi, COVID-19 Relief Fraud, Los Angeles CA, 2023 · California
- Marquis Williams Sentenced to Mail Theft, Hartford CT, 2023 · Connecticut
- Gerardo Heriberto Nuñez Nuñez, Elder Fraud Scheme, Boston MA, 2026 · Ohio
- Irina Segal, Medicare Fraud, Bucks County PA, 2023 · Pennsylvania
Key Facts
- State: Pennsylvania
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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