By Stephen — Dalena Reporters
November 27, 2025
A federal jury in Wilmington, North Carolina, this week found 34-year-old Saheed Sunday Owolabi — a Nigerian national — guilty on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, after prosecutors presented evidence tying him to a sprawling network of romance scams and pandemic-era financial fraud.
Court documents show that Owolabi, while operating from Nigeria, created fake online personas — often posing as women — to seduce and deceive unsuspecting American men. Once emotionally entangled, victims were coerced into transferring money or revealing sensitive banking information.
Additionally, the fraud ring exploited pandemic-era chaos to carry out a separate scheme: manipulating details of a pending home purchase, the conspirators sent spoofed emails instructing the victim to wire more than US $120,000 to bank accounts under the control of the syndicate. The funds were later laundered through a complex chain of transactions.
Prosecutors told the court that hundreds of victims across the United States were defrauded through this network. Evidence included chat logs in which Owolabi admitted running romance scams — until he was mocked by a co-fraudster for being unskilled.
If sentenced to the full extent, Owolabi faces up to 40 years in prison, a fine of up to US $250,000, and three years of supervised release when he returns to court for sentencing in January 2026.
The case marks the latest in a broader U.S. crackdown on trans-national cyber-fraud networks exploiting romance-scam schemes, pandemic-era financial vulnerabilities, and sophisticated money-laundering operations.