U.S Court Sends Anambra LG Chairman To Jail For $3.5 Million Romance Scam

A 42-year-old Nigerian, Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo, has been sentenced to jail by the U.S. District Court in Tacoma for his involvement in a scheme to steal $3.5 million from eight different victims via an online romance scam.

NEWSNGR reports that Nwadialo was sentenced to a five-year jail term following his conviction.

The development was confirmed in a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Washington.

Nwadialo was elected as the chairman of the Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State in September 2024, and was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at an airport in Texas upon his arrival in the United States later that year.

The sentencing followed a December 2023 indictment charging him with 14 counts of wire fraud related to an online romance scam that defrauded eight victims of approximately $3.5 million over 15 years.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright called the crime “devastating,” noting that it is “not an exaggeration to say it ruined lives—not only financial lives” but also from the nonmonetary harms the victims endured, such as “shame, depression, and isolation from their own family.”

“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,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd.

“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.”

“For years, Mr. Nwadialo preyed on vulnerable victims looking for relationships online, gained their trust, and told them lies to steal their life savings totaling millions of dollars,” said W. Mike Harrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office.

“Fortunately, although he operated his romance scams from overseas, Mr. Nwadialo ultimately traveled to the United States where he could be arrested and held accountable for his crimes here in the Western District of Washington.”

According to records filed in the case, Nwadialo used various versions of the name ‘Giovanni” when he met his victims online on dating websites such as Match, Zoosk, and Christian Café. He used false images and information for his profile, typically telling victims that he was in the military and deployed overseas so he could not meet them in person. Using these personas, Nwadialo invented many reasons he needed the victims to send him money. In one case, he told a victim that he had been fined by the military for revealing his location to the victim and asked for the victim’s help paying the $150,000 fine.

Nwadialo used other manipulative ploys to convince victims to send him money. He targeted older, often widowed or divorced individuals. He represented to one victim that he needed help moving money in connection with his father’s death. He told a victim that he was investing money for her. And he claimed he needed financial assistance, including help paying for his father’s funeral or his son’s school tuition.