Nigeria has extradited a man to the United States for his alleged role in a multi-nation scam that defrauded law firms of more than 30 million dollars.
Nigerian officials said Friday the suspect, Emmanuel Ekhator, who is Nigerian, was handed over to U.S. officials earlier this week and charged in the eastern U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
They say Ekhator was involved in a complex scam that involved several people.
Officials say a typical scam would involve a con man pretending to be a victim who sought help from a law firm about a debt he owed. Another scammer would falsely claim he would pay off the victim’s debt using a bogus check that would get approved by another con man posing as a bank employee.
In this way, the scammers would collect money from law firms before the firms realized the fake checks they received were worthless.
Nigerian officials say 80 law firms and lawyers were swindled in the scam.