Worldwide there's an ongoing debate over prisons- should they be a place of rehabilitation,
or of punishment, and which is the better crime deterrent in the long run?
It's probably no surprise that research shows rehabilitation is best for reducing recidivism,
and what could be better for reforming an inmate than running a small business?
How about a small business that earns said inmate a cool million bucks?
In 2016 Hope Olusegun Aroke was part of a Nigerian love scam ring broken up by authorities
ranging from Japan to the US, to Laos and Nigeria.
Mr. Aroke was one of an estimated 80 scammers who dedicated themselves to preying on lonely
women over the internet.
Posing as American service members stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other places,
the scammers would spark romance with lonely women through international pen pal websites.
After a whirlwind online romance, the scammers would quickly move on to ask for cash from
their online sugar momma- a lot of it.
Sometimes the money was needed for medical emergencies suffered by fake relatives back
in the US.. because if anything is believable it's that Americans need international help
to afford healthcare.
Other times the money was necessary for less than legal endeavors, such as the Japanese
woman who was scammed for $200,000 when her online lover claimed he needed help smuggling
diamonds out of Syria.
The scam was wildly successful, earning the crime ring tens of millions of dollars.
“But who's lonely enough to fall for such an obvious scam?”, wondered thousands of
people with OnlyFans membership accounts.
Well, women all over the world, from Asia to Europe and even right here in the US.
As the money was poured in, two men based in Los Angeles would be responsible for laundering
it through a variety of online bank accounts- all of it untraceable.
Well, until it wasn't and federal authorities raided the home of the two men along with
twelve others in the US.
Working with authorities in Nigeria, many more would go on to be caught and sent to
prison.
Hope Olusegun Aroke would be one of those scammers, only his time in prison was less
of a punishment and more of a 'working vacation'.
While authorities are still investigating how it was possible, Aroke was able to continue
perpetuating his online scams to the tune of a cool million bucks- and all this despite
a 24 year sentence in an Nigerian maximum security prison.
Apparently “maximum security” doesn't quite mean the same thing in Nigeria as it
does in the rest of the world, because Aroke was able to not just have unrestricted internet
access from his cell, but was even allowed to leave prison from time to time.
Under the guise of receiving medical treatment, Aroke would be shuttled to hotels where he'd
spend time with his family.
Even more brazenly, he would even make time to attend important social events- because
prison is absolutely not an excuse to neglect your friendships.
He was also allowed other perks other inmates were not, such as personal electronics to
include a cell phone, better food, and we're assuming a little privacy in the group showers.
At least that's the perk we'd be most interested in ourselves.
Aroke was a busy man, and on top of attending social gatherings and visiting with family
in hotels, he also made the time to go shopping for real estate.
With a 24 year prison sentence, it may seem a bit premature to be looking for a house
to settle down in, but Aroke was a rather forward-thinking man.
Either that or he had an inside track into Nigeria's prison system that made him confident
he'd be spending quite a bit of time away from his cell during his 24 year...
well, at this point we couldn't really call it a prison 'sentence' anymore, now could
we?
How about prison 'invitation', as in Aroke was invited to spend a quarter of a century
in prison by the Nigerian government for defrauding innocent, lonely people to the tune of millions-
but obviously he was free to refuse the invitation as he pleased.
A good host never forces an invitation- that’s just plain rude.
Eventually Nigerian authorities- as in the non-corrupt kind- got wind that one of their
inmates was absolutely excelling at this whole rehabilitation thing.
Also, he was spending equal parts in prison as out of it when they were pretty sure the
law states you're supposed to serve your entire sentence in prison.
The head of Aroke's prison and his prison doctor were both investigated, which we're
assuming must've been the shortest investigation in history, and removed from their posts to
face criminal charges.
Aroke is now under far closer scrutiny and finding out that when you can't bribe the
warden, prison really puts a crimp in your social life.
It's still unknown what new charges he'll face for crimes he committed while in prison,
but authorities are looking to recover as much of the estimated million-plus that he
stole while serving time.
One thing's for sure, Hope Olusegun Aroke's side business beat the pants off the two-cigarettes-a-sip,
toilet wine racket run in many US prisons.
Thinking about starting your own million dollar prison scam?
Check out Prison is horrible but not for the reason you think!
Or click this other video instead.