A jury at Federal court in Albuquerque has convicted two US based Nigerians of romance scam. The two Nigerian citizens, Olutayo Sunday Ogunlaja, 39, and Abel Adeyi Daramola, 37 has been sentenced to 20 years Imprisonment.
In the statement put out by US attorney, US Attorney Alexander Uballez and Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Albuquerque Field Office, Raul Bujanda, on Monday, January 6.
The department of Justice stated that the both of then was convicted for scam after four day trial and under three hours of jury deliberation.
The US Attorney’s Office noted that the two Nigerian nationals, working with other collaborators, launched a scheme in January 2016 by creating a fake identity, ‘Glenn Brown,’ on the dating platform ‘eHarmony.com.’
The following words were said on the statement:
“Throughout the fraud, the victim was led to believe that their financial assistance was necessary for ‘Glenn Brown’ to complete a purported construction project in Malaysia and return safely to the United States.
“The victim sent approximately $560,000 to various accounts in the United States, Canada, and Malaysia between January 2016 and April 2017.
“On September 27, 2016, the victim wired approximately $28,000 to a Woodforest Bank account in the name of Daramola Cars, as instructed by the fraudulent “Glenn Brown persona. Daramola subsequently wired $18,000 to a seafood importer in Denmark and issued a check (cheque) for $14,000.”
It was disclosed by Prosecutor that a fake profile was made to establish a romantic relationship with a victim in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Olutayo and Abel were accused of stealing thousands of US dollars from the victim. Daramola has denied being involved, statement from the FBI Albuquerque Field Office disclosed that text messages and WhatsApp chats on his phone revealed his role in providing bank accounts for several fraudulent schemes.
The statement also stated that Ogunlaja played a role by using his Bank of America account to receive the illicit funds.
Also the Glenn Brown scheme directly instructed the victim to deposit $20,000 in cash into Ogunlaja’s account on March 9 and March 15, 2016.
Once Ogunlaja received the deposits, he reportedly made multiple cash withdrawals and transferred the funds to Daramola’s accou
