DENVER — A Nigerian national living in Minnesota has been sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison for orchestrating a romance scam that defrauded a Colorado woman out of $1.7 million in cryptocurrency.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado, 37-year-old Adetomiwa Seun Akindele posed as a wealthy Italian-American businessman named “Frank Labato” on a dating site in 2018. Over the course of 10 months, he gained the trust of a widowed Colorado woman and convinced her to wire him nearly $2 million through a cryptocurrency exchange.
Once the funds were sent, Akindele moved the cryptocurrency across multiple exchanges to obscure the trail, eventually converting it into U.S. dollars and depositing it into personal bank accounts.
Authorities say Akindele exploited the speed and anonymity of digital currencies, a hallmark of modern romance scams. After serving his sentence, he will be deported to Nigeria.
“Romance scammers are relentless and cunning, preying on trust and emotion to exploit victims,” said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek.
Romance scams involve individuals falsifying identities online to emotionally manipulate victims into sending money. Cryptocurrencies are frequently used in these crimes due to their difficulty to trace once transferred.
John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin, estimates that between 2020 and 2024, romance scams helped move over $75 billion into crypto exchanges. “In the old days, you’d have to go through banks and follow strict verification procedures,” Griffin said. “Now, with crypto, that’s no longer the case.”
Authorities urge anyone involved in online relationships to remain vigilant, especially when money transfers are involved, and to report suspected fraud quickly.
