The Chairman of Ogbaru Local Government Area in Anambra State, Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo, has been sentenced to five years in prison by a United States federal court for orchestrating a $3.5 million online romance scam that targeted eight victims over a 15-year period.
The sentence was announced on Tuesday in a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright handed down the sentence on Monday at the District Court in Tacoma, Washington.
Judge Cartwright described the fraud as "devastating," saying it caused severe financial losses and lasting emotional harm to victims, including shame, depression and strained family relationships.
According to prosecutors, Nwadialo, 42, was indicted in December 2023 on 14 counts of wire fraud. He was arrested by the FBI at a Texas airport in 2024 after arriving in the United States, months after he was elected chairman of Ogbaru Local Government Area on September 28.
The Department of Justice said Nwadialo exploited people who were grieving or emotionally vulnerable by building fake online relationships before persuading them to send money. Prosecutors also said he falsely claimed to operate a non-profit organisation for autistic children to gain victims' trust.
"For years, Mr. Nwadialo preyed on vulnerable victims looking for relationships online, gained their trust, and told them lies to steal their life savings totalling millions of dollars," said W. Mike Harrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Seattle Field Office.
Harrington said although Nwadialo carried out the scheme from outside the United States, his arrival in the country allowed authorities to arrest and prosecute him in the Western District of Washington.
