The U.S attorney’s office (Eastern District of Pennsylvania) announced on Monday February 9, that it has arrested a former United States (U.S) department of defence official, Samuel Marcus, who faces up to 100 years imprisonment for helping Nigeria-based fraudsters to launder millions of dollars in illicit funds through a sophisticated transnational scheme.
The 33-year-old was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
In addition, he was also charged with six counts of illegal monetary transactions and one count of money laundering, illegal concealment in connection with the multimillion-dollar fraud scheme.
Prosecutors stated that the offences occurred between July 2023 and December 2025 when Marcus served as a money mule for online scammers operating out of Nigeria, while the defendant was working as a Logistics Specialist with the defence department.
Despite being fully aware of their criminal activities, Marcus worked directly with scammers who operated under the aliases ‘Rachel Jude’ and ‘Ned McMurray’, among others.
According to U.S authorities, the scammers specialize in romance fraud, cyber fraud, tax fraud, financing fraud, and business email compromise schemes that specifically target Americans, with victims losing millions of dollars.
To further the gang’s operation, prosecutors claimed that the defendant received proceeds from the illegal dealings into his personal and business bank accounts before re-routing the money to accounts controlled by the group in Nigeria.
The indictment also claimed that Marcus and other money mules, under the direction of the scammers, carried out other financial transactions for the gang, including the rapid conversion of stolen funds into cryptocurrency and the opening of bank accounts for other mules.
Even after he was informed by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents that the funds passing through his accounts had been stolen and that the activities were consistent with money laundering, Marcus continued to work for the fraudsters in Nigeria.
Marcus faces a maximum possible sentence of 100 years’ imprisonment, three years’ supervised release, and a $2 million fine if convicted on all the charges filed against him.