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Armed with fake passports, Nigerian scams romance schemes of $1 million

Jude Egbas

January 8, 2020 2:09 PM

A Nigerian scammed fraud schemes in the United States.

US Nigerian citizen used fake passports to launder romance fraud schemes (VOA)

Arinze Michael Ozor, 36, has been found guilty of defrauding compromise schemes and romance fraud schemes.

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US federal officials say Ozor, who resides in Maryland, United States, used fake passports to facilitate a money laundering conspiracy involving nearly $1 million.

Ozor has pleaded guilty to federal charges of forgery or false use of a passport, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland said in a statement, Monday.

Ozor is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Nigeria.

He used at least two passports to open eight so-called “drop accounts”, prosecutors said.

AFP reports that Ozor took more than $976,000 from business email compromise schemes and romance fraud schemes and put it in those accounts.

Officials say Ozor used a Ghanaian passport to open five bank accounts and a Beninese passport to open three additional accounts.

The money was then largely sent to other entities involved in the schemes.

Ozor is expected to be sentenced in May and could spend up to 10 years behind bars.

Jude Egbas Jude Egbas is a Senior Editor at Pulse. He believes that leadership is Nigeria's biggest problem. He has lived his entire life stringing words together to form powerful images. It's all he ever wants to do.

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