Nigerian businesswoman Bukky Olukoga pleads guilty in U.S., forfeits multimillion-dollar illicit proceeds

Nigerian-born American citizen Bukky Olukoga has pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business that transferred funds to individuals and entities in several countries, including Nigeria and China.

Under a plea agreement dated June 15 and filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, Ms Olukoga agreed to forfeit more than $200,000 linked to the unlicensed money-transmitting business.

According to the court document obtained by Peoples Gazette, she also agreed to identify all assets she owned, controlled, or transferred within the previous seven years, including any interest from the illegal conduct.

Prosecutors said the assets subject to forfeiture totalled $203,968.62, comprising $8,800 seized from her residence in August 2022, $15,894.91 in Bank of America accounts, and $179,273.71 from her Robinhood account.

The plea agreement requires that the forfeiture amount be paid to the U.S. Department of the Treasury by certified or cashier’s cheque at least 30 days before sentencing.

Should Ms Olukoga fail to pay the sum before sentencing, prosecutors said the forfeiture judgment would form part of the sentence, and the U.S. would seize all substitute assets to satisfy the amount.

The offence carries a maximum of five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release, and a mandatory special assessment of $100, per the plea agreement.

In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to a recommendation for a lower prison term within the federal sentencing guideline range and to forgo additional charges, although the judge could impose a different term.

Prosecutors also said the government will oppose a probation or a “split sentence” that would allow Ms Olukoga, who first entered the U.S. in 1993, to serve part of her custodial term outside prison.

No sentencing date has been announced.

Court records showed that investigations into her financial activities began at least as early as 2021 as part of a probe into suspected bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, tax-related offences, and currency structuring.

An affidavit, filed in August 2022 by David Dindinger, a special agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, showed that Ms Olukoga owned and operated Grace’s Property Investment LLC, a Rhode Island company established in February 2009.

Investigators said numerous transactions through Cash App and Zelle between 2020 and 2021 were inconsistent with the stated purpose of the real estate company and Ms Olukoga’s work as a CNA and did not match her reported net worth.

While Ms Olukoga’s company filed certain income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said the “high volume” of deposits and withdrawals from accounts linked to her were inconsistent with its activities. Investigators also noted that the records showed that one property had been sold since 2019.

Records reviewed during the investigation showed that Ms Olukoga received approximately $69,966 via Cash App between May and October 2020 and $239,855 via Zelle from 59 individuals between April and November of the same year.

Investigation showed that Ms Olukoga held multiple accounts at Citizens Bank, TD Bank, Santander Bank, Bank of America, and Robinhood, through which funds were transferred and received.

According to the affidavit, Ms Olukoga received approximately $1.77 million in cash deposits into her Citizens Bank accounts within seven months in 2020, while an additional $151,540 was deposited into TD Bank accounts between August 2020 and August 2021.

Prosecutors said transactions were linked to a business email compromise fraud scheme and believed that funds moving through her accounts “could be proceeds of a fraudulent endeavour and/or an effort to launder/conceal these proceeds”.

On April 26, 2022, investigators stopped Ms Olukoga at Newark Liberty International Airport and searched her phone.

According to the affidavit, messages extracted from her phone suggested that Ms Olukoga had been assisting individuals in moving funds from the U.S. to Nigeria in exchange for commissions. The conversations also contained discussions about exchange rates.

“I believe that the message exchange shows that Olukoga was asking for $3 per every $100 that she moved,” Mr Dindinger said in the affidavit.

It was determined in the affidavit that Ms Olukoga’s purported spouse controlled a Nigerian company that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) identified as being involved in money laundering linked to internet fraud.