By Emmanuel Okogba
A 42-year-old Nigerian man, Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo, who is also Chairman of Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for orchestrating an online romance scam that defrauded victims of more than $3.5 million.
In a statement by the US Department of Justice, U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright handed down the sentence late Monday in Tacoma, Washington, describing the crime as “devastating.”
The judge noted that the scam not only caused severe financial losses but also inflicted deep emotional harm on victims, including “shame, depression, and isolation from their own family.”
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd stated, “This defendant preyed on those already suffering from the loss of loved ones or other heartbreak. For some 15 years, he upended the lives of people he never met. He spun tale after tale to gain the victims’ trust and their money – even claiming to run a non-profit providing services for autistic children. No scheme was too low for these conspirators.”
