Olaniyi Nasiru Ojikutu, a 39-year-old Nigerian, was convicted of participating in a multi-year romance scam and was given a sentence of nearly seven and a half years in a U.S. prison.
Ojikutu, a permanent resident of the US, allegedly opened about 25 bank accounts under his own name, a fictitious name, and the name of a shell company, through which nearly $3.4 million in proceeds from fraud were transferred.
They revealed that Ojikutu and nine other people were charged in Operation Gold Phish, a Chicago-based sting operation that uncovered cybercrimes that preyed on senior citizens.
Ojikutu was charged with wire fraud in the scheme in 2019 and received an 88-month prison term on Wednesday, according to Fox32Chicago.
After he was charged Ojikutu fled to Canada by bus but he was arrested seven months later, with the Canadian authorities turning him over to the United States in January 2020.
He pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud last July.
Prosecutors said that schemers in the U.S. and Nigeria targeted the older citizens and built trust with them through an online romance before stealing money from them, John Lausch, the U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois, said in a statement.
Victims of the scam were contacted on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram and on the mobile dating app, Match.com.
Ojikutu used the fraudulently obtained funds for his own personal benefit, including purchasing vehicles in the United States and shipping them to Nigeria for resale, prosecutors said on Thursday. As a result of Ojikutu’s actions, some victims lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, federal prosecutors announced.
All but one of the nine defendants in federal custody have pled guilty in this case. The scam’s alleged leader, Daniel Samuel Eta, who is also known as “Captain” and “Etaoko,” 35, of Skokie has pleaded not guilty and his case is still pending, federal prosecutors said.
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