A Nigerian businessman known online as “The Black Mentor”, Joseph James Nantomah, has been sentenced to four years in a United States federal prison after an investment fraud scheme left at least 39 victims with losses of more than $2.7 million.
Nantomah, 49, was sentenced on September 18, 2026, in the Eastern District of Wisconsin after being found responsible for an investment scheme that prosecutors said operated between May 2020 and December 2024.
He was also ordered to pay $2,762,798.37 in restitution to victims and will serve three years of supervised release after completing his prison term. Brandspur Brand News reports that the case was investigated by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions also involved in related investigations.
According to federal court records, Nantomah entered the United States from Nigeria in 2016 on a visitor’s visa and later built an online image around claims that he had established a successful, multimillion dollar real estate business.
Using the name “The Black Mentor”, he organised conferences and classes under his “Wealth Flow” brand, where he presented himself as someone capable of teaching others how to build financial success in America. Prosecutors said he subsequently persuaded people who attended the programmes to invest money in his supposed real estate ventures.
The investors were told their funds would be used for real estate projects, including purchasing, renovating and reselling properties for profit. Federal authorities said Nantomah instead diverted more than $2 million for personal use.
The victims were not simply distant investors. Prosecutors said many were Nigerian immigrants and members of Nantomah’s church, allowing him to draw on shared cultural connections and their confidence in his promises of financial opportunity in the United States.
Authorities said the money was used to sustain a lavish lifestyle that included private jets, luxury cars, expensive jewellery and a yacht. Federal prosecutors also said he spent victims’ funds on building his public image, including obtaining honorary doctorate degrees for himself and his wife and paying celebrities to appear at his conferences.
The case had been under regulatory scrutiny before the criminal sentencing. In August 2025, the SEC separately charged Nantomah and three companies linked to him with operating a real estate related offering fraud. The regulator alleged that the businesses had raised at least $1.9 million from at least 30 investors and that at least 80 per cent of the money had been spent on Nantomah and other ventures rather than the promised property transactions.
The sentencing has since placed the contrast between Nantomah’s public image and the financial reality described by investigators under renewed scrutiny, particularly for people who trusted investment promoters because of personal, religious or community connections.
The US Justice Department said victims described significant financial and personal harm during the sentencing hearing, with Judge Lynn Adelman noting the effect the scheme had on working class immigrants and their families.
