Nnamdi Mgbodile charged with $6.5m romance scam in US

Nnamdi Marcellus Mgbodile, a Nigerian living in Marietta, Georgia, United States has been arraigned on twenty counts of bank fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

He was arraigned on November 19th before the U.S. Magistrate Judge Janet F. King. A federal grand jury indicted Mgbodile on November 6, 2019. Mgbodile was docked the same day that Air Peace chairman, Allen Onyema was also accused of money laundering and bank fraud by the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia.

One of Mgbodile’s alleged victims, a woman reportedly lost $6.5million to him via romance scam.

The indictment alleges that at the end of November 2017 a Virginia woman, who had a sizable trust, met a person through an online site. She was soon convinced that she was in a romantic relationship with the defendant who she had come to know as “Jimmy Deere.” Over the next month, the victim communicated via email with Deere, whom she believed had fallen for her. Deere said he wanted to start a life with her and was excited to live with her, but first had to resolve an investment opportunity—an opportunity that was totally fraudulent and fictitious.

Deere told the victim that he was a fund manager and he was on the verge of receiving a sizeable commission (“the funds”) for services provided to an unnamed client. He explained to the victim that he needed her to be his “representative partner” and have the funds deposited into the victim’s bank account to avoid an alleged conflict of interest.

In January and February 2018, after luring the victim, Deere and conspirators started requesting via email that she pay various “fees” and “taxes” so that the funds could be released. Between approximately January 2, 2018 and February 12, 2018, and in response to representations made by Deere and others regarding the funds, the victim made approximately twenty-five wire transfers totaling more than $6.5 million from the victim’s trust account into various bank accounts. At least $1.1 million was wired to business bank accounts controlled by MgBodile.