A U.S. federal court has sentenced Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo, the 42-year-old chairman of Ogbaru LGA, Anambra State, to five years imprisonment for stealing $3.5 million from eight victims through an online romance scam.
Nwadialo was sentenced on Monday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Washington, after being indicted in December 2023 on 14 counts of wire fraud. He was arrested by the FBI at a Texas airport upon his arrival in the U.S. in 2024. The politician was elected council chairman on September 28, 2024.
U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright called the crime “devastating,” noting it “ruined lives—not only financial lives” but also caused “shame, depression, and isolation from their own family.” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said, “This defendant preyed on those already suffering from the loss of loved ones or other heartbreak… He spun tale after tale to gain the victims’ trust and their money – even claiming to run a non-profit providing services for autistic children. No scheme was too low for these conspirators.”
FBI Seattle Special Agent in Charge W. Mike Harrington added: “For years, Mr. Nwadialo preyed on vulnerable victims looking for relationships online, gained their trust, and told them lies to steal their life savings totaling millions of dollars… although he operated his romance scams from overseas, Mr. Nwadialo ultimately traveled to the United States where he could be arrested and held accountable.”
