A Nigerian national, Oluwasegun Baiyewu, has been sentenced to 95 months (seven years and 11 months) in prison in the United States for laundering more than $3.1 million in proceeds from fraud schemes targeting American victims.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said Baiyewu, 40, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced on Thursday for his role in a money-laundering conspiracy involving business email compromise, romance and unemployment insurance fraud schemes.

The department disclosed this in a statement published on Friday by its Office of Public Affairs.

According to court documents, Baiyewu led a conspiracy involving at least six other co-conspirators in the United States and Nigeria between May 2020 and October 2021.

The DOJ said the group used encrypted messaging applications, including WhatsApp, to coordinate the receipt and use of illicit funds, which were used to purchase salvaged cars that were subsequently shipped to Nigeria.

In one instance, Baiyewu and his associates allegedly laundered about $280,000 stolen from a Puerto Rican renewable energy company through a business email compromise scheme.

The company had been deceived into transferring the money to bank accounts controlled by fraudsters and money launderers.

Baiyewu then worked with his co-conspirators to use the funds toward the purchase of vehicles in the US, which he arranged to export to Nigeria for the benefit of the criminal network, the department said.

A federal jury convicted Baiyewu in August 2025 on one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The Justice Department said its Cyber-Enabled Scam Initiative is focused on disrupting criminal networks that use technology to defraud Americans. The initiative targets crimes including investment and cryptocurrency scams, government impersonation schemes, romance and inheritance scams, financially motivated sextortion and lottery and sweepstakes fraud.

The case was investigated by the US Postal Inspection Service, US Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, FBI San Juan Cyber Task Force, with assistance from the National Unemployment Insurance Fraud Task Force.

Trial attorneys Emily Powers and Richard Greene of the Criminal Division’s White Collar and Corporate Enforcement Section and Assistant US Attorney Linet Olinghouse for the District of Puerto Rico prosecuted the case.