2 Nigerians, others jailed in the UK over £3.8m Wonga loan fraud

 News reports have revealed that a group of fraudsters, in this case, money launderers, have been apprehended after defrauding British loan company, Wonga, of £3.8m.

According to the reports, over 19,000 fraudulent loan applications coming up to a total of £6.2m had been submitted to the company over a 14-month period beginning in April 2012.


The City of London police reports that a failure in the company's systems had allowed for over half of the loans to be approved, with £3.8m being funneled into a network of middlemen for laundering via their accounts.

The cash had eventually been transferred to a "master" account controlled by the fraudsters behind the loan fraud.

On January 29, 2016, 4 of the middlemen, 2 of which were Nigerians, were sentenced to a total of more than 10 years in prison.

One of the suspects, Kelvin Okusanya, 31, from Coventry, who is yet to be arrested and had to be sentenced in absentia since he reportedly fled to Nigeria, is the only member of the group who had been convicted of submitting the loans and receiving the proceeds, earning him 6 years in jail.

Another suspect, Oluwamuyiwa Fasoranti, 32, of The Hollands, Feltham, and a Sophia Pusey-Carroll, 46, of Byron Road, Harrow, have reportedly received a sentence of 3 years and 21 months respectively, following the charges of money laundering.

A Monika Solarz, 29, of Audley Road, Hendon, after confessing to her role in the fraud, was sentenced to an 18-month jail sentence.

Andy Cope, Police Staff Investigator, speaking on the case had revealed saying:

"This group of money mules would have been working in close partnership with the people making the fraudulent loan applications, together taking millions of pounds from Wonga and committing identity crime on an industrial level. Being a money mule may seem like a relatively harmless offence, but law enforcement views it very differently. We are committed to stopping those middle-men who enable fraud and other crimes"