Fraudster’s 10-Year Sentence for Scam Hitting Home Buyers Holds

A Nigerian national convicted of wire fraud in connection with a $19 million business email compromise scheme lost an Eleventh Circuit appeal challenging his 10-year prison sentence.

Babatunde Ayeni said the sentence was unreasonable, but the lower court provided a “sufficiently compelling” explanation for its decision to impose an above-guidelines sentence, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit said Tuesday in the per curiam opinion.

The sentencing judge stressed that Ayeni’s crime—which targeted businesses involved in real-estate transactions—had far-reaching, foreseeable consequences.

Ayeni and his co-conspirators gained access to and compromised attorney-client privileged communications, social security numbers and other ...