A Nigerian national has been found guilty of laundering more than $120,000 stolen through an online romance scam that targeted a man in North Carolina’s Triangle region, federal officials announced Wednesday.
34-year-old Saheed Sunday Owolabi was convicted on Oct. 16 of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to court records. He had been arrested in July 2024, just months after entering the U.S. on a spousal visa. Court documents show Owolabi was indicted in June 2022 along with another Nigerian citizen and two American co-conspirators.
According to prosecutors, Owolabi and fellow suspect Stephen Ojo posed as women online, manipulating men into sending and transferring money on their behalf. Investigators uncovered chat messages in which Owolabi admitted he had been running a romance scam—until he unknowingly began communicating with another scammer who mocked his technique and told him to “learn how to do a cleaner job,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.
One of the scam’s key participants was Derrick Donahue Davis of Concord. Court documents state Davis was deceived by Ojo, who used the fake identity “Kyra Carter” after connecting with him on a dating app in 2018. Davis later became involved in an April 2020 scheme that targeted a Triangle-area man identified as “KCN.”
As KCN was preparing to close on a home in Apex, scammers sent him an email pretending to be his attorney. Using COVID-19 disruptions as leverage, they convinced him to wire $120,768.17 to Davis’ account to avoid delaying the closing. Davis later distributed the funds to multiple individuals, with at least $1,500 ultimately reaching Owolabi.
The victim discovered the scam only when he arrived for the closing appointment. Although investigators warned Davis that he was engaging in criminal activity, court documents say he continued moving money for Ojo and Owolabi.
Davis pleaded guilty in April 2023 and was sentenced to four years and six months in prison.
Ojo, who lived in Turkey for much of the scheme, remains at large.
Owolabi is scheduled for sentencing in January and faces up to 40 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release, according to federal officials.
