Two Nigerians, Olutayo Sunday Ogunlaja, 39, and Abel Adeyi Daramola, 37, face up to 20 years in prison in the United States after being convicted of orchestrating a $560,000 romance scam.
The conviction followed a four-day trial and less than three hours of jury deliberation. The announcement was made by the US Attorney, Alexander Uballez, and Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, in a statement released Monday evening.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed that Ogunlaja and Daramola, along with accomplices, began their scheme in January 2016 using a fake identity, “Glenn Brown,” on the dating platform eHarmony.com.
They established a romantic relationship with a victim in Albuquerque, New Mexico, convincing the individual to send money to support a fabricated construction project in Malaysia. Between January 2016 and April 2017, the victim sent approximately $560,000 to accounts in the United States, Canada, and Malaysia.
The statement detailed specific transactions linked to the scam. On September 27, 2016, the victim wired $28,000 to a Woodforest Bank account under the name “Daramola Cars.” Daramola then sent $18,000 to a seafood importer in Denmark and issued a $14,000 cheque. Ogunlaja used his Bank of America account to receive $20,000 in cash deposits from the victim on March 9 and March 15, 2016. He later withdrew the funds and transferred them to Daramola’s account.
Text and WhatsApp messages on Daramola’s phone revealed his role in providing bank accounts for the fraud schemes. Ogunlaja’s account also showed transactions tied to the scam, confirming his involvement.
This case adds to a growing list of Nigerians implicated in romance scams in the U.S. In November 2024, two other Nigerians, Anthony Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu, were sentenced to a combined 30 years in prison for defrauding U.S. citizens of $3.5 million through inheritance scams.
