Brazen scammer sentenced to 44 months in prison

A four-time fraudster was sentenced in White Plains federal court to 44 months in prison on July 11 for running yet another swindle.

Ian Mitchell, 36, stole $470,000 from prey in Manhattan and Westchester County by pretending to be the nephew of a billionaire Nigerian businessman.

Mitchell used the names of real people and businesses a to create a “false sense of legitimacy,” a prosecutor stated in a sentencing letter, and used “doctored bank statements to create a mirage of wealth.”

From 2015 to 2018 he was involved in four separate frauds. For instance, he posed as a relative of a wealthy Jamaican businessman and as the operator of a hedge fund.

In the latest hoax he posed as the nephew of Aliko Dangote, a billionaire Nigerian industrialist. He offered phony investment opportunities with stories weaved from real news, such as Dangote’s plan to open a private wealth management firm in New York.

He wined and dined wealthy individuals at high-end Manhattan restaurants, claimed he was investing millions of dollars of his own money, and offered to let them in on the opportunity “because of their friendship,” according to a prosecutor’s sentencing letter.

He created a sense of urgency that required the target to fund a portion of an investment, with the promise of paperwork to follow, then provided fake documents.

Once he got the funds, he spent the money at the racetrack or on personal expenses.

When the FBI went to arrest him at his girlfriend’s 31st floor apartment in Midtown Manhattan, in March 2023, he resisted with a hammer and knife, broke a window and threatened to jump, and held off agents for eight hours. As Mitchell perched on a ledge, a  New York police officer rappelled down the side of the building, kicked Mitchell inside and climbed in after him.

Mitchell’s attorney, Elizabeth Quinn, recommended a prison sentence of 30 months, in a letter submitted to U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel.

He was born in Jamaica, abandoned by his parents at age 3, raised mostly by his grandparents and an uncle, and lived a tumultuous childhood of abuse and economic uncertainty.

He has suffered from anxiety and depression, Quinn stated, and grappled with drinking and gambling problems.

She noted that for more than a year Mitchell has been held under harsh conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center, in Brooklyn, including vermin-infested food and frequent lockdowns akin to solitary confinement.

Assistant prosecutor Qais Ghafay recommended a prison sentence of up to 51 months.

Mitchell  stipulated to 41 to 51 months in prison in a plea agreement, when he pled guilty to fraud on March 6. The terms were based in part on the sophisticated nature of the fraud and on reckless conduct that created a risk of death of injury to law enforcement during his arrest.

Judge Seibel recommended that the Bureau of Prisons place Mitchell in a facility as close as possible to New York City, but not the Metropolitan Detention Center.

To read more from Bill Heltzel, click here.