An alleged conman responsible for defrauding women out of millions of dollars in romance scams has been arrested at a Houston airport.
Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo, a 40-year-old from Nigeria, was arrested upon his arrival at the airport on 14 counts of wire fraud, a crime that carries a possible sentence of 20 years behind bars.
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According to the indictment filed in the case, Nwadialo would court his victims on dating platforms like Match, Zoosk, and even Christian Cafe. Using deceptive profile pictures and a fake name—which was some form of “Giovanni”—he would often pose as a member of the U.S. military who was stationed overseas to explain why he couldn’t meet women in person.
From there, Nwadialo would invent different scenarios in which he needed money from his victims.
In 2019, he scammed a woman by claiming that he needed help moving funds after his father’s death. In all, that victim sent Nwadialo at least $330,000.
In 2020, Nwadialo told a different woman that the military had handed him a $150,000 fine as punishment for him revealing his location to her, and he needed her help to pay it. In total, that victim was defrauded of at least $2.4 million.
A third victim was defrauded after he told her that he was investing money for her. She trusted that his investments were legitimate, because she received a check after investing. In reality, this money came from another victim, and she “reinvested” it into an account that Nwadialo controlled.
A fourth victim who met Nwadialo on a dating site sent him at least $310,000 for a combination of reasons, including funding his “father’s funeral” and his “son’s school tuition.”
He was indicted for the charges in Seattle back in Dec. 2023, and he will be extradited to Washington state for his arraignment.