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Cape Town/Washington — September 13, 2026
Six Nigerian nationals arrested in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2021 over alleged links to the Black Axe organized criminal network have been extradited to the United States to face wire fraud and money laundering charges, South African police confirmed Friday, September 11.
The men — identified as Perry Osagiede, Collins Owhofasa Otughwor, Osariemen Eric Clement, Musa Mudashiru, Franklyn Edosa Osagiede, and Prince Ibeabuchi Mark — were handed over to U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation officials and transported to the United States following an extradition process that stretched across five years of South African court proceedings.
South African police’s Hawks unit said the men are alleged to be members of Black Axe, a criminal network Interpol describes as responsible for a significant share of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud, typically carried out through romance scams, cryptocurrency schemes, and investment fraud. Authorities allege the six targeted more than 100 women in the United States — including retirees and businesspeople — through online romance scams, defrauding victims of more than $6 million (roughly R100 million).
The men were arrested in Cape Town in 2021 following an international investigation involving South African authorities, the FBI, Interpol, and the U.S. Secret Service. Their legal teams subsequently pursued bail applications and contested the U.S. extradition request through South African courts over the following years before its resolution this month.
Were families aware?
The arrests were not conducted in secret. A TimesLIVE report published October 26, 2021, documented that several female family members of the accused were present in court when the men first appeared following their arrests, and that Nigerian diplomatic officials also attended the proceedings. Public records cannot establish precisely what every individual relative knew or when each became aware of developments in the case, but contemporaneous reporting indicates that at least some family members were following the matter from its early stages rather than being caught unaware five years later.
Context
The case is one of several in recent years in which Nigerian nationals accused of involvement in Black Axe-linked online fraud schemes have been extradited to the U.S. from South Africa, the United Kingdom, and other countries following lengthy investigations and legal proceedings — including a separate case in which a Cape Town Black Axe zone leader was extradited to New Jersey on similar wire fraud and money laundering charges. Such cases typically illustrate that international financial crime investigations can remain active for years, with extradition sometimes following long after an initial arrest rather than immediately.
The men face wire fraud and money laundering charges in the United States. The allegations against them remain unproven and have not yet been tested in court.
