Franklin Nwadialo, the newly elected chairman of Ogbaru Local Government Area in Anambra State, has been apprehended in Texas, USA, for his alleged involvement in a $3.3 million romance scam targeting vulnerable women online.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that the 40-year-old was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation upon his arrival in Texas.
According to the DOJ, Nwadialo is set to be transferred to the Western District of Washington for arraignment, where he faces a 14-count charge that could result in a 20-year prison sentence if convicted.
The DOJ revealed that Nwadialo created false profiles with fabricated images, portraying himself as a military member deployed overseas to gain victims’ trust.
“According to the indictment, Nwadialo used various versions of the name ‘Giovanni’ when he met his victims online on websites such as Match, Zoosk, and Christian Café,” the DOJ statement read, as cited by The Punch.
In one case, the DOJ disclosed that Nwadialo convinced a victim to send him $150,000, claiming he had been fined by the military for sharing his location with her. This victim ultimately lost at least $2.4 million through Nwadialo’s scams.
In another instance from 2019, Nwadialo reportedly persuaded a second victim to help transfer funds to his accounts, under the pretense that it was connected to his father’s passing.
The DOJ confirmed that this victim transferred at least $330,000 to accounts Nwadialo and his co-conspirators controlled.
The DOJ also detailed how a third victim lost $270,000 after Nwadialo convinced her to reinvest proceeds from another victim’s “investment” into a cryptocurrency account he controlled.
Finally, in August 2020, Nwadialo defrauded yet another victim by requesting $310,000 for purported expenses like his father’s funeral and his son’s tuition.
The 14 counts of wire fraud cover Nwadialo’s communications and financial transactions with the victims, as well as the funds he obtained through his alleged schemes.
The DOJ noted that Assistant United States Attorney Sok Jiang is prosecuting the case.
