U.S Company Halts Money Transfers To Nigeria Over FBI’s Indictment Of 77 Citizens For Fraud

One of America’s largest private companies, H-E-B, has announced plans to halt money transfers to Nigeria following the indictment of 77 citizens of the country in what was described as one of the largest fraud cases in U.S history.

The Texas-based company, which runs a supermarket chain of more than 350 stores throughout the U.S, issued a notice to customers on its plan to end Western Union Transfers to Nigeria by second week of December, 2019. 

“Attention HEB customers, as of 08/12/19, we longer do Western Union Transfers to Nigeria. We apologize for any inconvenience,” read the notice sighted by THE WHISTLER. 

The grocery retailer which boasts over 100,000 employees and $21 billion in revenue as of 2018, made the announcement after the United States Department of Justice for the Central District of California named 77 Nigerians among 80 others facing persecution for “business email compromise (BEC) frauds, romance scams, and schemes targeting the elderly – to defraud victims out of millions of dollars.”

All these are coming less than a week after a 47-year-old Nigerian, Ayodeji Temitayo Fatunmbi, was sentenced to four years over $8.3 million healthcare fraud in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced in statement that Fatunmbi was found guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, seven counts of health care fraud and one count of money laundering. He was sentenced to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay about $1.1 million in restitution to the U.S government.

Meanwhile, in reaction to the indictment of 77 of its citizens for fraud in the U.S, the Nigerian Government says it would be more than willing to extradite wanted citizens “if relevant international treaties are invoked”. 

This was according to the Chairman of the Nigerians Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who said this in a press release issued on Friday.