An investigation has commenced into the alleged $3.3m romance fraud case involving the newly elected chairman of Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra state in Nigeria, Franklin Nwadialo, in the United States.
The Anambra council chairman was recently arrested in Texas by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for allegedly running a $3.3m romance scam.
In a statement on Tuesday, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said the 40-year-old was accused of using false images in his profile to defraud vulnerable women of their hard-earned money.
“According to the indictment, Nwadialo used various versions of the name ‘Giovanni’ when he met his victims online on websites such as Match, Zoosk, and Christian Café,” the DOJ stated.
It added that the Anambra politician “typically told the victims that he was in the military and deployed overseas, so he could not meet them in person.”
“In one such case in 2020, he claimed he had been fined by the military for revealing his location to the victim. He asked the victim to help him pay the $150,000 fine. In all, that victim was defrauded of at least $2.4m,” DOJ stated.
The US judicial body also said the Anambra politicians further duped three more persons of the sum of $330,000, $270,000 and $310,000 respectively.
According to the US justice department, the Anambra council boss would be transferred to the Western District of Washington for arraignment as the 14-count charge leveled against him bothers on wire fraud which is liable to 20 years in prison.