Nigerian Swindler Gets 10 Years for Laundering Millions in Romance Scam Profits

A Nigerian national will spend the next decade behind bars for laundering money derived from internet fraud – mainly romance fraud.

33-year-old Olugbenga Lawal, who resided in Indianapolis, Indiana, worked with a Nigeria-based international crime ring that defrauded individuals and businesses across the United States out of millions of dollars through sophisticated online tricks, court documents say.

The organization carried out business email compromise and romance fraud, frequently manipulating elderly victims into sending money under a romantic pretext.

“Lawal then laundered millions of dollars of proceeds from the fraud schemes,” according to the US Department of Justice.

Lawal used multiple bank accounts at different financial institutions to launder the profits of the criminal organization. Investigators traced the funds directly to individuals and businesses defrauded over the internet by members of the gang, court documents say.

Accounts controlled by Lawal – opened in his own name or the name of his business entity, Luxe Logistics LLC – received no less than $3.6 million in deposits between January 2019 and May 2020.

Lawal would also launder money by converting dollars into Naira, the Nigerian currency. He furthered his employers’ mission by conducting import/export transactions involving the shipment of cars to Nigeria, while also operating a currency exchange business to facilitate the repatriation of the organization’s fraud proceeds back to Nigeria.

Based on the evidence produced by FBI investigators, Lawal was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison, and was ordered to pay over $1.46 million in restitution.

As stunning as the profits may seem, the gang was just one small part of a lucrative global industry. Overall, romance scammers cashed in on a whopping $1.3 billion in 2022, according to a report issued by the Federal Trade Commission last year.

In December 2023, Interpol arrested 3,500 cybercriminals and seized 300 million USD in proceeds from cybercrime, much of it stemming from romance scams.

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