A federal jury in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has convicted two Nigerians—Olutayo Sunday Ogunlaja (39) and Abel Adeyi Daramola (37)—for orchestrating a romance scam that defrauded a victim out of $560,000. Each faces up to 20 years in prison following their convictions, revealed in a joint statement from U.S. Attorney Alexander Uballez and FBI Albuquerque Field Office Special Agent Raul Bujanda on January 6.
The two men, along with accomplices, began their scheme in January 2016 by creating a fake identity, ‘Glenn Brown’, on the dating platform eHarmony.com. They convinced their victim that financial assistance was needed to help “Glenn Brown” complete a construction project in Malaysia and safely return to the United States.
Between January 2016 and April 2017, the victim transferred approximately $560,000 to various accounts in the United States, Canada, and Malaysia. Ogunlaja was identified as using his Bank of America account to receive funds from the victim. Notably, “Glenn Brown” directly instructed the victim to deposit $20,000 in cash into Ogunlaja’s account in March 2016.
After receiving the money, Ogunlaja allegedly made multiple withdrawals and transferred funds to Daramola’s account. Despite Daramola’s denial of involvement, evidence, including text messages and WhatsApp chats from his phone, showed that he had provided bank accounts for various fraudulent schemes.
The pair was found guilty after a four-day trial and less than three hours of jury deliberation. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that their fraudulent activities caused substantial financial damage to the victim, who was led to believe they were helping a romantic partner in need.
This conviction highlights the ongoing efforts of the FBI to combat online fraud schemes, including romance scams targeting unsuspecting victims through social media and dating websites.
