Nigerian national gets 30-month U.S. prison term for email fraud funds

Edikan Adiakpan, a 35-year-old Nigerian citizen, has been given a 30-month federal prison term in the United States for unlawfully sending proceeds tied to an email fraud scheme. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the sentence in a statement on Thursday, October 8, 2026. Adiakpan, who lives in Houston, was taken into custody in June 2025 and entered a guilty plea on May 12, 2026. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen sentenced him to 30 months in federal prison, with three years of supervised release to start right after. During the hearing, the court was told that between 2020 and 2022 Adiakpan operated 'Akama Lifestyle,' a business he controlled and marketed as a luxury car service, and used it to move money for other people. He retained a portion of the transferred funds as a fee. When he was arrested, Adiakpan held temporary legal status in the United States but was originally from Nigeria. The money he received and forwarded came from scammers running a business email compromise operation that targeted over 10 victims. These fraudsters sent spoofed emails that seemed to be from known suppliers and creditors, leading victims to send payments to bank accounts controlled by the fraudsters rather than to the real suppliers. One victim, a small utility trailer company in Mississippi, submitted a victim impact statement that was read at sentencing. It described the harm the fraud caused after the company was tricked into wiring money it believed was going to its trailer supplier, including $927,080 sent to the Houston-based fraudsters, who then forwarded parts of the proceeds to Adiakpan. Adiakpan deposited and cashed several cashier's checks made out to himself and his exotic car business that included $359,000 of the victim's funds. Another Nigerian, Ayobami Omoniyi, 27, received a 32-month federal prison sentence on March 24 for his involvement in the scheme. The FBI's Houston office, its Bryan Resident Agency and IRS Criminal Investigation handled the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Belinda Beek prosecuted the case.