COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus man was sentenced in U.S. District Court Friday to five years in prison for laundering more than $2 million of proceeds generated by online romance fraud scams, according to U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker.
Court documents state that from January 2017 until 2020, 49-year-old Maximus Okwudili Adiele participated in a money laundering conspiracy, laundering $2.3 million for online romance fraud scammers into 12 different bank accounts that he controlled.
The conspiracy involved unidentified individuals who fabricated online relationships with men and women throughout the U.S. to manipulate the victims into sending money to one of Adiele’s bank accounts.
Many of the victims of the scam were elderly individuals who lost their life savings. In total, Adiele laundered money from at least 17 victims.
Adiele, who was born in Nigeria and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2015, used his international car dealing business to conduct financial and wire transactions to individuals in Nigeria.
Adiele wired nearly $1.2 million of the $2.3 million he received to Nigeria. The defendant failed to report additional income to the IRS for tax years 2017, 2018 and 2019, causing a loss to the IRS in the amount of $64,242.
As part of his sentence, Adiele was ordered to pay $967,669.98 in restitution to the individual victims and $64,242 to the IRS.
Adiele was charged and pleaded guilty in November 2022 to money laundering and submitting a false tax return.
Columbus man sentenced to 5 years in prison for online romance fraud scams
Many of the victims of the scam were elderly individuals who lost their life savings.
