A 77-year-old woman from Southern Arizona sent nearly $400,000 to an online boyfriend who turned out to be part of an international romance scam ring based in Nigeria, court records show.
A federal judge in Tucson recently sentenced one of the ring members, Onovughe Ighorhiohwunu, to 130 months in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering and ordered him to return a total of $1.3 million to 10 scam victims across the country.
Most of the victims βwere elderly or older womenβ an FBI agent said in a written statement to the court.
U.S. District Court Judge Scott Rash also imposed a $25,000 fine on the defendant in his Aug. 16 ruling.
The 77-year-old victim, who lives in Sierra Vista about 90 miles southeast of Tucson, told authorities she became lonely in 2019 after her husband with dementia went to live in a care facility, and sought company by playing the online game Words with Friends.
Another player struck up a conversation and invited her to chat on an instant messaging app, then by text and email. The two began a βromantic, online relationshipβ and he started asking for money, ostensibly for medical care he needed to be able to visit her in person.
She ended up sending him more than $388,000 in less than a year, court records show.
βInternet-based scams like this one starkly illustrate both the greed of the perpetrators and the generosity of the elderly victims,β U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino of the District of Arizona said in a news release announcing the sentence.
Ighorhiohwunu, 47 and a resident of Georgia, has been behind bars since mid-2021 when he was arrested by Atlanta FBI agents and transferred to Tucson to await trial.
Court heard evidence he worked as a money mule for the Nigerian scammers, collecting funds from victims and transferring them overseas.
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