United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero has announced that two men, Imoleayo Samuel Aina, 26, and Samuel Olasunkanmi Abiodun, 24, were extradited from Nigeria to the United States to face charges related to the s@xual extortion and d£ath of a young man in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Romero, who made the announcement in a statement on Monday, August 5, 2024, said Aina is charged with cyberstalking, interstate threat to injure reputation, and receiving proceeds of extortion. Both Aina and Abiodun are charged with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.
After being charged by complaint, Aina and Abiodun were arrested in Nigeria and taken into custody by the FBI on July 31, 2024.
They were extradited to the United States with the assistance of the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the FBI Legal Attaché in Abuja, and the FBI.
“The support and assistance of Nigerian security authorities was essential to this effort, notably that of Nigeria’s Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Justice’s International Criminal Justice Cooperation Department, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,” the statement read.
Aina and Abiodun have now been brought to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for prosecution and appeared in federal magistrate court in Philadelphia before U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth T. Hey on Friday, August 2.
If convicted of the charged offenses, Aina faces a maximum possible sentence of lifetime imprisonment, and Abiodun faces a maximum possible sentence of 40 years’ imprisonment.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Abington Township Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Patrick Brown.