Trio Collected $750K In Romance, Inheritance Scams: U.S. Attorney

ROMEOVILLE, IL — Three residents from suburban Chicago have allegedly carried out a "variety of cyber-enabled fraud conspiracies," defrauding dozens of victims out of $750K, federal officials said Tuesday.

According to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Nigerian nationals Samuel Aniukwu and Anthony Emeka Ibekie and American citizen Jennifer Gosha were each charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the U.S. District Court.

One of the alleged schemes involved romance scams in which "a conspirator builds trust with a victim through a purported online romance before convincing the victim to send money to a predetermined recipient," the release said.

The trio allegedly communicated with victims throughout the United States via social media and dating websites, including Match.com and OKCupid.com. The charges allege that they also engaged a business email compromise scheme and an inheritance fraud.

Aniukwu, 46, of Romeoville, Emeka Ibekie, 55, of Oswego, and Gosha, 48, of Oak Park, were arrested last week after an undercover federal law enforcement investigation identified these fraud conspiracies.

In the business email compromise scheme, the defendants defrauded victims by targeting corporate email accounts via "computer intrusion techniques," the complaint said. Correspondence to those email accounts was blocked while they used them to communicate with unsuspecting victims in an attempt to induce fraudulent wire transfers.

In the inheritance fraud scam, the trio told victims that they had received a substantial inheritance and needed to send money to the conspirators in order to claim it, according to the complaint. The charges accuse the defendants of creating fictitious business entities and opening numerous bank accounts in to launder the proceeds from the fraud schemes.

A federal agent posed as a potential victim in an undercover investigation and began communicating with the defendants, the Aurora Beacon-News reported. The agent was eventually told to send money to a business that listed Gosha’s residence as its mailing address, authorities said. In September 2017, the trio allegedly took nearly $120,000 from one business and $17,000 in various scams two months later. One person lost $45,000 in a romance scam, officials said.

During a court-authorized search last week of Aniukwu’s residence, law enforcement seized multiple digital devices, including a cellphone that contained letters purported to be from Standard Charter Financial Group, addressed to victims regarding processing bogus inheritance payments, according to the government’s memorandum in support of Aniukwu’s detention.

All three defendants face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

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