United States v. Stanley Anyanwu

── United States v. Stanley Anyanwu ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Date: May 18, 2026 Category: General NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 26a0216n.06 Case No. 25-5753 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED May 18, 2026 ) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, KELLY L. STEPHENS, Clerk ) Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ) ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED v. ) STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR ) THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF STANLEY ANYANWU, ) TENNESSEE Defendant-Appellant. ) ) OPINION Before: MOORE, WHITE, and THAPAR, Circuit Judges. THAPAR, Circuit Judge. Stanley Anyanwu participated in a conspiracy that defrauded victims out of millions of dollars. He helped funnel the proceeds of online scams through multiple bank accounts so that victims never saw their money again. As a result, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. He now challenges his conviction, arguing that the district court should have transferred the case to another venue. He also contends the district court didn’t adequately question potential jurors. Finding no error, we affirm. I. A few years ago, the City of Memphis received a seemingly routine email. The CEO of one of its vendors was asking the City to make an upcoming payment to a new bank account. The CEO provided a notarized form and voided check from the new bank. So the City updated the No. 25-5753, United States v. Anyanwu payment information and sent over $773,000 to the new bank account. But the email wasn’t routine. It was part of a “business email compromise” scam trying to steal money from the City. A business email compromise is a type of cybercrime where fraudsters use a seemingly authentic email to trick employees of a business or government agency into sending them money or sensitive data. In one common version, the scammers monitor the victim’s emails to see when the victim is about to make a large payment. The fraudsters then email the victim, pretending to be the intended recipient of that payment, and request that the victim wire the money to a new bank account under the fraudsters’ control. Once the money is transferred, the scammers rely on a network of “money mules” to whisk those funds out of the country. R. 117, Pg. ID 778. The money mules often use shell companies, wire transfers, cash deposits, and cash withdrawals to hide the source and destination of the funds. And they typically work so quickly that banks can’t pull back the funds, often leaving victims with no way to recover their losses. One such money mule was Stanley Anyanwu. After the City of Memphis transferred the funds to the scammers’ bank account, a money mule sent some of that money to a bank account that Anyanwu controlled. Anyanwu then tried wiring the money to his wife’s bank account in Nigeria. But the bank rejected the transfer. So he took out two cashier’s checks, deposited those checks into another bank account he controlled, and then transferred the funds to six other money mules. As a result of Anyanwu and his co-conspirators’ efforts, the City of Memphis lost $773,695. The City wasn’t the only victim of this conspiracy. The fraudsters also committed romance scams in which th