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Seven Nigerians arrested for scheming to steal funds from elderly widows in US
Federal prosecutors have charged eight people in Utah with fraud and money laundering for what they argue was a scheme to steal funds from elderly widows.
The alleged fraud occurred over two years and netted $6 million, according to charging documents made public Thursday.
Seven of the eight defendants are Nigerian nationals, and prosecutors say much of the stolen money was wired to accounts in Nigeria.
“It’s usually a phone call from far away, and we can’t catch the people. Here, we have seven people of Nigerian descent in their twenties, and they are operating the scheme right out of Utah,” U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber told 2News.
According to the indictment, the seven Nigerians, who live in Salt Lake and Utah Counties, along with a woman from West Valley City, used fake social media profiles to befriend the victims. They would pretend to be businessmen or military generals and purport romantic interests in the victims before asking them for money, the indictment alleges.
In one case, a 75-year-old woman claims she was contacted online by a businessman living in Germany who convinced her to invest money in an industrial pipe project in Turkey. The victim sent ten checks totalling $275,000 and five wire transfers totalling $81,000 to the defendants, according to the indictment.
Another victim claimed she was befriended by a high-ranking military officer on social media and established an online relationship. The 74-year-old victim was eventually convinced to write a $140,000 check to one of the defendants and mail it to his home in Vineyard.
“Sometimes we find the more aggressive the lie, the more believable it can be to someone in a vulnerable situation,” Huber said.
Jeffersonking Anyanwu, 25, Daniel Negedu, 21, Onoriode Kenneth Adigbolo, 31, Chukwudi Kingsley Kalu, 28, Godsent Nwanganga, 24, Richard Ukorebi, 38, and Adrianna Sotello, 20, all face one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, three counts of mail fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy, and one count of money laundering. David Maduagu, 27, faces the same charges except for money laundering, according to the indictment.
If convicted, each defendant could face decades in prison and fines of at least $250,000.
The ten victims in the indictment ranged in age from 52 to 76.
Anyanwu, Negedu, Adigbolo, Ukorebi, Nwanganga, and Maduagu remain in custody pending trial. Sotelo is on supervised released and Kalu remains at large, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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