Nigerian faces ‘20-year jail’ case over alleged $2.5 million romance rip-off indictment in US
A Nigerian nationwide, Charles Uchenna Nwadavid, has been charged in the US with a $2.5 million romance rip-off indictment – a cost recommending 20 years in jail if convicted.
The USA Justice Division disclosed this in an announcement on Wednesday.
He’s charged for his alleged function in allegedly stealing greater than $2.5 million from six romance rip-off victims and transferring their cash to cryptocurrency accounts that he allegedly managed.
The US authorities company disclosed that Charles (34) of Abuja, Nigeria, was arrested on April 7, 2025, after arriving on a flight from the UK to Dallas-Fort Value Worldwide Airport.
Particulars of Allegations
In keeping with the assertion, “romance scams” recruit victims via commercials for on-line relationships on courting or social media web sites whereas people perpetuating romance scams create fictitious profiles after which use them to achieve victims’ belief via a purported romantic relationship.
“Perpetrators then direct their victims to ship cash or to conduct {financial} transactions involving different victims’ cash below false pretenses, similar to an pressing want for cash to safe a multi-million greenback inheritance or to pay for an surprising hospitalization,” the assertion partly reads.
- In keeping with the costs, between in or about 2016 and September 2019, Nwadavid allegedly participated in romance scams that tricked victims into sending cash overseas.
- In an effort to hide his function because the recipient of the victims’ funds, Nwadavid was accused of utilizing a sufferer from Massachusetts (Sufferer 1) to obtain funds from 5 different victims round the US.
“Nwadavid then allegedly tricked Sufferer 1 into passing her personal and the opposite victims’ cash to him via cryptocurrency transactions, and allegedly accessed accounts in Sufferer 1’s identify from abroad, to switch the victims’ funds to accounts he managed at LocalBitcoins, an internet cryptocurrency platform,” the assertion added.
- The US company harassed that the mail fraud cost offers for a sentence of as much as 20 years in jail, three years of supervised launch, a high quality of as much as $250,000 or twice the loss to the sufferer, restitution, and forfeiture.
“The cash laundering prices present for a sentence of as much as 20 years in jail, three years of supervised launch, and a high quality of as much as $500,000 or twice the worth of the property concerned within the laundering transactions, restitution, and forfeiture.
” The defendant may also be topic to deportation upon completion of any sentence imposed. Sentences are imposed by a federal district courtroom decide based mostly upon the U.S. Sentencing Tips and statutes which govern the willpower of a sentence in a prison case,” the assertion added.
Authorized Disputes
In keeping with the assertion, in January 2024, a federal grand jury in Boston indicted Nwadavid on prices of mail fraud and cash laundering.
Nwadavid appeared in federal courtroom in Fort Value, Texas, on April 8, 2025, and was detained pending additional proceedings.
The USA Lawyer Leah B. Foley and Jodi Cohen, Particular Agent in Cost of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division additionally harassed that the main points contained within the charging paperwork are allegations as the defendant is presumed harmless until and till confirmed responsible past an inexpensive doubt in a courtroom of legislation.
