U.S. authorities arrested a Nigerian national Tuesday as he entered the country, accusing him of defrauding multiple victims out of millions through online romance scams.
Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo, 40, of Nigeria, was arrested on 14 counts of wire fraud connected to multiple romance scams, in which he and his co-conspirators allegedly manipulated their victims into sending them millions of dollars under false circumstances.
Nwadialo is accused of defrauding his victims of more than $3 million. He did this, authorities said, by lying that he needed money for fines, legal fees, and investment opportunities. Many lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and one lost upwards of $2 million.
According to the indictment, Nwadialo operated under many aliases and would look for people on websites such as Match, Zoosk, and Christian Café. He would create fake personas and tell victims that he was in the military and deployed overseas so that they could not actually meet in person.
After gaining his victims’ trust, he would claim that he needed money from them. Often, Nwadialo and his co-conspirators would defraud their victims of all that they were willing to send, which sometimes amounted to their entire life savings, prosecutors said.
In many instances, victims are of older demographics, or are widowed or divorced and looking for companionship.
By operating internationally, romance scammers are able to evade the authorities of their victim’s host countries. Given the prevalence of online scammers, it is more feasible for police to educate people on how to spot and avoid them, rather than open an investigation for every single case.
“All too often the defendants in these romance scams are overseas and unreachable by U.S. law enforcement,” said U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman.
In Nwadialo’s case, however, he was detained after landing in Texas on a flight from Nigeria. He had been wanted by authorities since at least December 2023.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
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