A former official of the United States Department of Defence, Samuel Marcus, has been released from prison after serving less than nine months for helping fraudsters based in Nigeria launder millions of dollars.
The 34-year-old was freed after a federal court in the US credited him for the time he had spent in custody before his trial, ruling that the period was sufficient punishment for his offence.
Marcus had pleaded guilty to a single count of concealment of money laundering before US District Judge Joel Slomsky.
He was arrested and indicted by the US Department of Justice in February and initially faced the possibility of a prison sentence of up to 100 years.
Prosecutors alleged that Marcus was involved in the scheme between July 2023 and December 2025 while employed as a logistics specialist with the Department of Defence.
According to the prosecution, he served as a money mule for online fraudsters operating from Nigeria under aliases such as ‘Rachel Jude’ and ‘Ned McMurray’.
Marcus allegedly received proceeds from fraudulent schemes through his personal and business bank accounts before transferring the funds to accounts controlled by the criminal network in Nigeria.
Prosecutors also claimed that he continued facilitating the transactions even after Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, agents warned him that the money moving through his accounts was stolen and that the transactions showed signs of money laundering.
During his sentencing hearing on Friday, Marcus’s lawyer and the prosecution agreed that the time he had already spent in detention was an adequate punishment for the offence. The court subsequently ordered his release.
Reports indicated that his sentence was reduced partly because he was born with several intellectual disabilities, including autism.
Although he has been released from prison, Marcus will remain under supervised release for three years and is expected to continue receiving mental health treatment.
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