A Nigerian national was sentenced to six years in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme in which he impersonated sellers of residential properties in Palm Beach County.
Uwa Nosakhare, 26, and others tried to sell four vacant home lots without the owners’ consent between April 2022 and April 2023, according to prosecutors. The $3.8 million fraud included attempting the sale of one lot to four different sets of buyers.
The properties were:
- 244 Northwest Eighth Terrace in Boca Raton
- A lot on Redwood Lane in Boca Raton
- 1601 Cocoanut Road in Boca Raton
- 228 North D Street in Lake Worth
Nosakhare was charged in July with three counts of mail fraud and three counts of aggravated identity theft. He pleaded guilty in January. Nosakhare and others used property owners and other victims’ identifiable information without their knowledge to create fake driver’s licenses, notary credentials, bank account statements and other documents, according to prosecutors. The properties were listed for sale on Zillow.
The buyers would wire the funds for their purchases to accounts controlled by those involved in the scheme. Nosakhare mailed the fraudulent closing documents from Houston, Texas to buyers, and some had Nosakhare’s fingerprints on them, according to court records.
Last month, in a separate fraud scheme, Okechukwu Josiah Odunna, a resident of Abuja, Nigeria, was back in the U.S. for his arraignment on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. Odunna played a key role in an $8 million mortgage fraud that involved 20 residential properties in Florida, including homes in Miami Shores and North Miami Beach, prosecutors allege. Others involved included former North Miami Mayor Marie Lucie Tondreau.
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