Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo, a 40-year-old Nigerian national, was arrested upon arrival at a Texas airport on charges related to a multi-million-dollar romance fraud scheme.
Nwadialo was indicted in December 2023 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington and faces 14 counts of wire fraud. He allegedly defrauded victims of up to $3.3 million by posing as a U.S. military member stationed overseas.
Authorities took Nwadialo into custody as he traveled from Nigeria, and he will be transferred to Washington for arraignment. U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman commended investigators for overcoming the challenges of prosecuting international romance scammers, noting, “All too often, the defendants in these romance scams are overseas and unreachable by U.S. law enforcement.”
According to the indictment, Nwadialo used aliases like “Giovanni” on platforms such as Match, Zoosk, and Christian Café, creating fake profiles and claiming he was deployed overseas. He allegedly invented various urgent needs for money. In one instance in 2020, he told a victim he’d been fined by the military for revealing his location and asked her to cover the $150,000 fine, ultimately defrauding her of at least $2.4 million.
In another case from 2019, Nwadialo convinced a victim to help transfer funds, claiming it was related to his father’s death, resulting in a loss of $330,000. A third victim reportedly invested $270,000 through him after he misled her about cryptocurrency investments.
Nwadialo also allegedly defrauded a fourth victim in August 2020 by asking for help with personal expenses, including his father’s funeral and his son’s school tuition, resulting in a $310,000 loss.
The 14 counts of wire fraud pertain to communications and money transfers with Nwadialo and his co-conspirators. Each count of wire fraud carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Gorman emphasized that the charges are allegations and that Nwadialo is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The FBI is investigating the case, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sok Jiang.