An American businessman, Marco Antonio Ramirez, has been sentenced to 74 years in prison by a Lagos State Special Offences Court for defrauding victims of $1.2 million through a visa scam and an additional $368,698.24 in separate fraud cases.
Justice Mojisola Dada delivered the verdict on Tuesday, finding Ramirez guilty on all 16 counts brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Prosecutors said Ramirez and his companies — USA Now LLC, Eagle Ford Instalodge Group LP, and USA Now Energy Capital Group LP — obtained money from victims by falsely promising access to the U.S. EB-5 Investor Programme.
This programme, if legitimate, would have made the victims eligible for U.S. Green Cards and permanent residency.
One victim, Godson Echegile, lost $545,000 to Ramirez under the pretense of processing fees for his investment.
Another victim, Gabriel Ogie Edeoghon, was defrauded of $250,000.
The fraudulent activities took place in 2013. Ramirez was initially arraigned on 12 counts, which were later amended to 16 counts in June 2022.
In her ruling, Justice Dada stated, “The convict dishonestly converted the money meant for investments to his personal use. The prosecution has successfully proved that the promises made to the victims were false, and the funds obtained were under fraudulent pretences.”
Ramirez received various sentences for different counts, including 8 years each for counts one to six, 10 years each for counts seven and eight, and 10 years each for obtaining money under false pretence and stealing.
This is not his first encounter with the law. Ramirez had been previously indicted for crimes in the United States.
The EFCC welcomed the verdict, stating it serves as a deterrent to other fraudsters targeting unsuspecting victims with false promises of U.S. visas and investments.
Meanwhile, NewsNGR reports that charges that led to the sentence of Ramirez are unrelated to a separate crude oil scam allegation dating back to 2015.
Ramirez was reportedly involved in the scam involving a false claim that 48 million barrels of Nigerian crude was stolen and ferried to China in a bid to secure 5 percent whistlerlow compensation fee from the Nigerian Government.
The convict, alongside his U.S. and Mexican collaborators, had allegedly planned to defraud the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the Federal Government by providing false and unauthenticated information on a non-existent oil deal.
In April 2023, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, had dismissed claims that the country lost over $2.4bn revenue from alleged illegal sale of alleged 48 million barrels of crude oil exported in 2015 to China.
Malami faulted the allegations during a hearing of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee constituted to investigate the alleged crude oil theft.
The then Attorney-General had described the allegations as baseless and unfounded.
Subsequently, in July 2023, the ad-hoc committee headed by Hon. Mark Gbillah Terseer found the allegation to be false and cleared the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd and its leadership of any wrongdoing.