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au.news.yahoo.com
· 2025-12-08
Australian Federal Police raided a scam operation in Manila, Philippines, arresting 250 alleged cyber criminals and seizing over 300 computers and 1,000 mobile phones. The scammers targeted Australian men over 35 through dating apps and social media, building trust before directing victims to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms, with perpetrators working shifts to align with Australian time zones. Authorities are now working to identify victims and dismantle the financial structures supporting these offshore romance and investment scams.
newscop.com.au
· 2025-12-08
Australian Federal Police conducted a significant raid on a scam compound in Manila, Philippines as part of Operation Firestorm, resulting in the arrest of over 250 individuals and seizure of hundreds of computers and thousands of mobile phones used to target Australian men over 35 through romance and cryptocurrency investment scams. The operation revealed how offshore scam centers operate in shifts aligned with Australian time zones to build rapport with victims before soliciting investments in fake trading platforms. The AFP and National Anti-Scam Centre will contact identified victims and advise Australians to remain vigilant against romance and investment scams by verifying identities, being skeptical of urgent requests, and reporting suspicious activity to authorities.
thestar.com.my
· 2025-12-08
A 65-year-old retiree in Penang lost approximately RM1 million after being deceived by a phone scam syndicate that impersonated Tabung Haji officials and police officers, claiming his account was involved in money laundering and directing him to transfer his savings to a new account. In a separate case, a 55-year-old factory manager lost RM1.1 million to a similar scam in which fraudsters posing as NFCC and Sarawak police officers threatened detention and ordered her to transfer funds across nine accounts. Both victims only discovered the fraud after discussing the incidents with family members, and authorities are investigating the cases under Section
examiner.com.au
· 2025-12-08
Over 260 people were arrested in Manila, Philippines during a raid on a romance scam operation that targeted Australian men over 35 through dating apps and social media. The scammers, working in shifts aligned with Australian time zones, built trust with victims before directing them to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platforms. Australian Federal Police worked with Philippine authorities to gather intelligence on the scam's structure and money laundering operations, with plans to identify victims and shut down similar operations globally.
afp.gov.au
· 2025-12-08
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) partnered with Philippine authorities in October 2024 to dismantle a romance and cryptocurrency scam operation in Manila, resulting in the arrest of over 250 suspected cyber criminals and the seizure of hundreds of computers and thousands of mobile phones. The scammers targeted Australian men over 35 through dating apps and social media, building trust before directing victims to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms while operating shifts aligned with Australian time zones. The AFP gathered intelligence on victim targeting methodologies and financial structures to help identify Australian victims and disrupt similar scam centers globally under Operation Firestorm.
punchng.com
· 2025-12-08
Anthony Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu, two Nigerian nationals living in the Chicago suburbs, were sentenced to a combined 30 years in federal prison for defrauding US citizens of at least $3.5 million through inheritance scams, romance scams, and business email compromise schemes. Ibekie received 20 years and Aniukwu received 10 years after being convicted on multiple counts including wire fraud, money laundering, and passport fraud. A third accomplice, US citizen Jennifer Gosha, pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges and is scheduled for sentencing on December 18, 2024.
ogletree.com
· 2025-12-08
Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams involve criminals spoofing legitimate email addresses to trick victims into sending wire transfers, with Real Estate Wire Fraud (REWF) targeting property buyers into wiring funds to fraudulent accounts. Between 2013 and 2022, the FBI documented over 211,000 BEC complaints totaling approximately $30.4 billion in losses, with REWF complaints surging 27% from 2020 to 2022 and losses jumping 72% to $446.1 million. The FBI recommends verifying payment requests independently through known contact information, avoiding unsolicited links, and confirming any account or procedural changes directly
fincen.gov
· 2025-12-08
The U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has joined a multi-sector national task force convened by the Aspen Institute to develop a comprehensive strategy for preventing fraud and scams. FinCEN will participate in working groups alongside financial services, technology companies, consumer advocacy groups, and federal agencies to create cross-sector recommendations for combating fraud. This initiative expands FinCEN's public-private partnerships in addressing fraud, cybercrime, and illicit finance risks.
marca.com
· 2025-12-08
In Florida, a 56-year-old man named Jeffrey Moynihan Jr. was arrested for posing as billionaire Elon Musk on Facebook and defrauding a 74-year-old Texas woman of approximately $600,000 between 2023 and April 2024. Moynihan befriended the victim, convinced her to "invest" in fake companies with promised returns up to $55 million, and directed her to send funds to accounts linked to his painting businesses. He now faces charges including grand theft, identity theft, wire fraud, and money laundering, with authorities still investigating the full extent of the scheme.
globenewswire.com
· 2025-12-08
This article announces The Assembly Caribbean 2024, a virtual anti-financial crime conference hosted by ACAMS on December 5-6, 2024, featuring over 40 experts and regulatory officials addressing compliance challenges in the Caribbean region. The conference will cover fraud risks including elder fraud, romance scams, and "pig butchering" schemes, alongside discussions of money laundering, sanctions enforcement, virtual assets regulation, and the fentanyl crisis. The event aims to provide compliance professionals with practical strategies to detect financial crimes and implement effective anti-money laundering measures tailored to the Caribbean's unique AFC landscape.
chicago.suntimes.com
· 2025-12-08
Three suburban men were sentenced to federal prison for orchestrating romance, inheritance, and business email fraud schemes that defrauded victims of at least $3.5 million. Anthony Ibekie received 20 years, Samuel Aniukwu received 10 years, and Jennifer Gosha is pending sentencing; the trio built trust with victims through social media and dating websites before directing them to send money under false pretenses including fake inheritances and compromised corporate email accounts.
interior-news.com
· 2025-12-08
I cannot provide a summary of this content. What you've shared appears to be a website navigation menu and homepage layout from a British Columbia news outlet, not an article about elder fraud, scams, or abuse. To assist you, please provide the actual article text or content you'd like summarized for the Elderus database.
justice.gov
· 2025-12-08
Two Nigerian nationals operating from the Chicago suburbs, Anthony Emeka Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu, conducted inheritance scams, romance scams, and business email compromise fraud schemes that defrauded victims of at least $3.5 million across the United States. Ibekie was convicted on 14 counts and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, while Aniukwu pleaded guilty and received a 10-year sentence; a third accomplice, Jennifer Gosha, pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges and awaits sentencing.
fox32chicago.com
· 2025-12-08
Two Nigerian nationals operating from the Chicago suburbs, Anthony Emeka Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu, were sentenced to 20 and 10 years in prison respectively for orchestrating multiple fraud schemes that stole at least $3.5 million from victims across the U.S. Their schemes included inheritance scams requiring upfront fees, romance scams conducted through social media and dating apps, and business email compromise attacks targeting corporate accounts. A third conspirator, Jennifer Gosha, pleaded guilty to related charges with sentencing scheduled for December 18.
caledoniacourier.com
· 2025-12-08
I cannot provide a summary of this content. What you've shared appears to be a website navigation menu and article headlines from a British Columbia news outlet, not an actual article about fraud, scams, or elder abuse.
To create a summary for the Elderus database, please provide the full text of an article that discusses a specific scam, fraud incident, or elder abuse case.
thenorthernview.com
· 2025-12-08
I cannot provide a summary as requested. The text provided is a website homepage/navigation menu for a news publication, not an article about scams, fraud, or elder abuse. It contains only section headers, navigation links, and headlines without article content.
If you have a specific article about elder fraud or abuse you'd like summarized, please provide the full article text and I'll be happy to create a concise summary following the Elderus guidelines.
spokanejournal.com
· 2025-12-08
Financial fraud targeting older adults has significantly increased in sophistication, with U.S. financial institutions reporting approximately $27 billion in suspicious elder financial exploitation activity from June 2022 to June 2023, and older adults losing over $1.9 billion to fraud in 2023 alone (though the FTC estimates the actual figure may reach $61.5 billion). Check fraud has become particularly prevalent, increasing 385% nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic, with criminals stealing checks from mailboxes and using chemical solvents to alter amounts while preserving signatures. Financial experts recommend protective measures including using permanent gel markers on checks, avoiding blank spaces, monitoring statements regularly, and educating family
westfaironline.com
· 2025-12-08
A 24-year-old Bengali national living in New York on a student visa, Mazharul Islam, was arrested and charged with conspiracy and wire fraud for operating a Geek Squad auto-renewal scam targeting elderly victims in Orange County and Ohio. In the first case, Islam posed as a courier and collected $35,000 in cash from a 73-year-old Warwick man who was tricked into believing he had accidentally authorized a $41,999 charge; police arrested Islam during a subsequent sting operation involving a decoy $22,000 payment. Islam admitted to working as a courier for an operation based in India, earning $2,000 per
westfaironline.com
· 2025-12-08
A 24-year-old Bengali student in New York on a student visa, Mazharul Islam, was arrested and charged with operating a Geek Squad auto-renewal scam that defrauded elderly victims of significant sums. Islam posed as a Best Buy employee, sending phishing emails to trick victims into believing they needed to renew service contracts, then directed them to fake refund links and convinced them they had overpaid, coercing them to withdraw cash; he personally served as the courier in at least two cases, collecting $35,000 from a 73-year-old Warwick man and $20,000 from an Ohio victim before being caught by police. Islam pleade
africa.businessinsider.com
· 2025-12-08
The FBI targeted a romance scam operation linked to $5 million in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes affecting approximately 71 victims, including a 60-year-old from North Carolina and an 83-year-old from Minnesota. Scammers used fake identities on social media to build romantic relationships with victims before directing them to invest in a counterfeit cryptocurrency platform called Bitkanant, after which they cut off contact and disappeared with the funds. The U.S. Attorney's office seized nearly $5 million in Tether cryptocurrency in August, with one victim losing an entire retirement account, and the FBI is working to identify perpetrators and return assets to victims.
paymentsdive.com
· 2025-12-08
As scammers increasingly use advanced technology to create realistic fraud schemes, authorized push payment scams—where criminals persuade consumers to voluntarily send money through instant payment networks like Zelle—pose a significant threat even to vigilant consumers. In 2023, Zelle customers disputed over $206 million in fraudulent transactions, with consumers bearing the costs of 80% of those disputes, and the paper notes that once payment is authorized, victims have little to no recourse since transactions are often irrevocable. The Federal Reserve recommends that financial institutions adopt artificial intelligence and machine learning to assess scam risk and alert customers before high-risk transactions are executed.
finance.yahoo.com
· 2025-12-08
A Federal Reserve research paper warns that even vigilant consumers face increasing risk from authorized push payment (APP) scams, as criminals use advanced technology to create increasingly realistic fraud schemes on platforms like Zelle. In 2023, Zelle customers disputed over $206 million in fraudulent transactions, with consumers bearing 80% of the costs and having little recourse once payments are executed. The Fed recommends that instant payment networks adopt more sophisticated fraud-fighting strategies, while scammers continue to evolve their tactics through methods such as fake accounts, mule schemes, and potentially AI-generated personas.
justice.gov
· 2025-12-08
A Bronx man, Bashiru Ganiyu, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role in an international fraud and money laundering scheme that targeted elderly victims through romance scams between 2020 and 2022. Ganiyu received nearly $12 million from over 40 victims into bank accounts he controlled, deceiving them into sending money under the false pretense of romantic relationships, then laundering the proceeds to co-conspirators based in Ghana. He was ordered to forfeit over $11.7 million and pay restitution of approximately $7.7 million.
justice.gov
· 2025-12-08
Three New York residents—Rohan Lyttle (97 months), Caron Pitter (66 months), and Charlene Marshall (34 months)—were sentenced to prison for their roles in a Jamaican lottery scam targeting elderly Americans between 2017 and 2020. The defendants received and laundered funds from victims who were falsely told they had won Publisher's Clearing House prizes and needed to prepay taxes, with victims losing over $1.1 million collectively through cash packages, wire transfers, and fraudulent credit card and ATM withdrawals in Jamaica; each defendant was ordered to pay $245,147.98 in restitution.
browndailyherald.com
· 2025-12-08
In early March, a Warwick grandparent couple lost $18,000 to a "grandparent scam" in which fraudsters impersonated their grandson needing bail money; when asked for an additional $40,000, the couple recognized the scheme and contacted police, leading to the arrest of two out-of-state men who were found with $60,000 in cash and allegedly collected $230,000 from similar schemes. Rhode Island has experienced a 22% growth rate in elder fraud cases between 2022 and 2023—the third-highest in the nation—prompting increased law enforcement investigations, legislative proposals to combat scams, and awareness campaigns by organizations like
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
· 2025-12-08
A 77-year-old retired engineer in New Delhi was defrauded of over Rs 10.3 crore in a digital arrest scam between September 25 and October 14, during which scammers impersonated Mumbai Police and CBI officials via video calls, falsely accusing him of money laundering and threatening legal action while demanding he transfer funds in three installments. The victim was isolated for 19 days under threats not to contact family, only realizing the fraud when his brother intervened and convinced him he was being scammed. Delhi Police's IFSO unit is investigating the case.
dhs.gov
· 2025-12-08
A Danvers, Massachusetts man, Trung Nguyen, was convicted of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and money laundering after converting over $1 million in cash to Bitcoin through his unregistered company National Vending, LLC between 2017 and 2020. Nguyen deliberately evaded banking regulations and accepted cash from scam victims and a drug dealer, knowingly facilitating their criminal activities by converting their proceeds into cryptocurrency without filing required reports or registering with federal authorities.
gistmania.com
· 2025-12-08
Thai police arrested two Nigerian men and four Thai nationals in November 2024 as part of "Operation Black Horse Down," an investigation into a romance scam ring that defrauded victims of over 50 million baht. The gang operated more than 1,000 mule bank accounts through which 1.2 billion baht in transactions were processed for foreign criminal networks including drug dealers and call centers. The suspects face charges including public fraud, computer crimes, and money laundering, with authorities warning the public that opening bank accounts for others in exchange for payment is illegal and carries penalties of up to three years in prison and 300,000 baht in fines.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
· 2025-12-08
Three men from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Gujarat were arrested for a digital extortion scam targeting a graphic designer at an MNC who was held on video call for four hours and defrauded of Rs 2 lakh. The scammers impersonated Mumbai police to convince the victim she was involved in money laundering and threatened to block her bank accounts if she didn't comply with their instructions. The investigation revealed the accused were trading in fraudulent bank accounts (mule accounts) supplied through a network that provided login credentials and SIM cards to criminals across the border to steal money from victims.
thehackernews.com
· 2025-12-08
Google has identified sophisticated scam techniques including landing page cloaking, where fraudsters impersonate legitimate websites and use AI-generated deepfakes to conduct investment fraud and credential theft schemes. The report highlights emerging tactics such as scareware redirects, app clones, and cryptocurrency scams originating from organized crime syndicates in Southeast Asia, with Google blocking over 5.5 billion policy-violating ads in 2023 and launching new scam detection features in its Android Phone app to protect users.
paymentsjournal.com
· 2025-12-08
Cross-border payments, which represent only 11% of card transactions but account for 63% of card-related fraud, pose significant risks to consumers and financial institutions globally. In the UK alone, authorized push payment (APP) scams—where victims are tricked into sending money to criminals—caused £239 million in losses in the first half of 2023, with one in three UK cross-border payment users reporting victimization. To combat this growing threat, experts recommend implementing collaborative information-sharing frameworks between financial institutions, adopting tokenization technology, and establishing universal standards like ISO 20022 to improve fraud detection and reduce the physical distance advantage that enables criminals to evade capture.
nationthailand.com
· 2025-12-08
Police arrested six suspects—four Thai nationals and two Nigerian men—who operated romance scams and used over 1,000 mule bank accounts to launder money for international criminal networks, defrauding victims of more than 50 million baht. The gang leader, identified as a Nigerian national named Christian, facilitated transactions exceeding 1.2 billion baht through accounts linked to foreign call centers, drug dealers, and other scam operations. The suspects face charges including public fraud, computer crimes, and money laundering, with authorities warning the public that opening bank accounts for others can result in up to three years imprisonment and 300,000 baht in fines.
saharareporters.com
· 2025-12-08
Four Nigerian nationals—Patrick Edah, Efe Egbowawa, Igocha Mac-Okor, and Kay Ozegbe—were sentenced to federal prison (30 to 60 months) for operating a romance and investment scam that defrauded victims across the U.S., including Western Tennessee, from 2017 to 2021. The defendants used fake identities and dating site profiles to establish romantic relationships and solicit emergency financial assistance, with victims losing thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, including one Tennessee resident who lost over $400,000. They were convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering after laundering scam proceeds through
edmonton.ctvnews.ca
· 2025-12-08
I appreciate you providing this, but I need to let you know that the content provided appears to be corrupted or improperly formatted—it consists primarily of timestamp data rather than actual article text about the aurora forecast.
To provide an accurate summary for the Elderus elder fraud database, I would need the actual written content of the article. However, based on the title alone, this article about aurora borealis forecasts in Alberta does not appear to be related to elder fraud, scams, or elder abuse, so it would fall outside the scope of what Elderus documents.
Could you please provide the full text of an article related to elder fraud or scams?
guardian.ng
· 2025-12-08
Four Nigerian citizens residing in the U.S. and Canada were sentenced to federal prison (ranging from 2.5 to 5 years) for operating romance and investment scams between 2017 and 2021, using fake identities on dating sites and social media to deceive victims into sending money via wire transfers and mail. The conspiracy involved dozens of victims who lost between thousands to over $400,000 each, with the defendants functioning as "money mules" to launder proceeds through shell companies and multiple bank accounts. The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case, which was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Tennessee
oklahoman.com
· 2025-12-08
Oklahoma City is warning residents about a resurging scam where callers impersonate municipal court employees or law enforcement, demanding immediate payment of fake fines over the phone under threat of jail. The city advises residents to hang up, independently verify any debts by calling OKC Municipal Court at (405) 297-3898 or checking okc.gov/court, and notes that scammers increasingly use spoofed numbers, actual deputy names, and payment methods like gift cards and cryptocurrency to steal money.
americanbanker.com
· 2025-12-08
A retired Navy commander in Virginia had his estate drained of $3.6 million through 74 wire transfers to Thailand while suffering from diminished mental capacity due to a stroke, with his bank failing to prevent the fraud despite an address as suspicious as "165 alley behind the old Phraya Karai Temple Wat." In a separate case, an 84-year-old Los Angeles man and his 76-year-old wife lost $18.5 million of $29.5 million moved from their accounts after scammers convinced them of a data breach, with Bank of America failing to flag the highly anomalous transactions. These cases highlight systemic vulnerabilities in bank oversight
thehindu.com
· 2025-12-08
A 74-year-old woman in Hyderabad lost ₹37.9 lakh in retirement savings to a fake money laundering account scam, while a 63-year-old man lost ₹50 lakh to a WhatsApp stock trading fraud—part of a rising trend of sophisticated cyber crimes targeting India's elderly population. Research and expert analysis reveal that older adults are particularly vulnerable because they often underestimate their cognitive decline, experience reduced cognitive flexibility and increased impulsivity, and may be unaware of these changes, while scammers deliberately target lonely seniors and exploit emotional manipulation and false profit promises. India's estimated 3.8 million people living with dem
justice.gov
· 2025-12-08
Four Nigerian citizens were sentenced to federal prison for operating international romance scams targeting U.S. victims from 2017 to 2021, with sentences ranging from 30 to 60 months. The defendants created fake identities on dating sites and social media to build romantic relationships with victims, then solicited money for emergencies, with losses ranging from thousands to over $400,000 per victim. The defendants functioned as "money mules," laundering proceeds through multiple bank accounts and shell companies to conceal the scheme's origins.
actionnews5.com
· 2025-12-08
Four Nigerian citizens were convicted of operating romance scams across the United States between 2017 and November 2021, defrauding victims out of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars each by creating fake identities on dating websites and social media to build false romantic relationships and solicit emergency financial assistance. The defendants acted as "money mules," laundering stolen funds through multiple bank accounts and shell corporations to obscure the money trail; one victim in Tennessee alone lost over $400,000. The four received federal prison sentences ranging from 30 to 60 months, with sentencing occurring between April and October 2024.
localmemphis.com
· 2025-12-08
Four Nigerian citizens were sentenced to federal prison for operating romance and investment scams between 2017 and 2021, using fake identities on social media and dating platforms to build relationships with victims before requesting money transfers. The scheme affected multiple victims across the U.S., with one West Tennessee victim losing over $400,000, and the defendants acted as money mules moving proceeds through bank accounts and shell companies. Sentences ranged from two-and-a-half to five years in federal prison.
singaporelawwatch.sg
· 2025-12-08
I cannot provide a meaningful summary of this content. The material appears to be a news feed or index listing from Singapore legal and business publications, containing only headlines and dates without article text or substantive details. While some headlines reference legal matters (bribery, fraud schemes, enforcement actions), there is insufficient information about any specific elder fraud, scams, or elder abuse incidents to create a summary for the Elderus database. To properly summarize content for this resource, please provide the full article text.
legalserviceindia.com
· 2025-12-08
India's Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has prohibited transactions through "mule accounts"—bank or brokerage accounts used to conceal the true identity of individuals conducting illegal financial activities such as market manipulation, insider trading, and money laundering. The regulatory action targets a growing threat to market integrity, as rising digital trading platforms have made it easier for criminals to create mule accounts using fake or stolen identities to artificially inflate or deflate stock prices and mislead investors. This 2024 amendment strengthens SEBI's enforcement framework to enhance transparency, accountability, and investor protection in Indian securities markets.
scmp.com
· 2025-12-08
Hong Kong police arrested 126 people in a 12-day operation targeting a rising trend of fake official scams that primarily victimized mainland Chinese students. The scams involved impersonators posing as police officers to extort money through fake kidnapping schemes, including one case where an 18-year-old student was told to record videos of himself begging for ransom to secure HK$6 million from his father. The operation uncovered 110 scam cases affecting 325 victims aged 18-86, who lost a combined HK$570 million.
news18.com
· 2025-12-08
The Enforcement Directorate filed a writ petition with the Jharkhand High Court alleging that the state government failed to respond to 47 FIRs and multiple corruption complaints involving at least three ministers and four IAS officers over alleged scams in land, mining, sand, coal, and MGNREGA sectors between September 2022 and September 2024. The ED claims the state deliberately stonewalled investigations into what it characterizes as systematic corruption, while the ruling JMM party counters these are politically motivated allegations by the BJP ahead of assembly elections.
nbcboston.com
· 2025-12-08
Trung Nguyen, a 48-year-old Massachusetts man, was convicted Friday of money laundering charges for operating an unlicensed Bitcoin exchange service from 2017 to 2020 that converted over $1 million in cash into cryptocurrency. His operation facilitated money laundering for a methamphetamine dealer and multiple romance scammers, including $325,000 from a Kansas City victim, $60,000 from a Connecticut victim, and $60,000 from a Massachusetts victim. Nguyen faces decades in prison and hundreds of thousands in fines at his February 12 sentencing.
irs.gov
· 2025-12-08
Three individuals were sentenced for their roles in a Ghana-based romance scam targeting elderly U.S. victims between March 2019 and March 2022: Sadia Alhassan (18 months prison), Shawn William Smith (1 day prison), and Mohammed Saaminu Zuberu (5½ months prison). The defendants served as money launderers and intermediaries, receiving funds that scam victims wired or mailed after being deceived into believing they were in romantic relationships with military personnel, with total restitution ordered at $581,261.67.
giant.fm
· 2025-12-08
**Summary:**
Ogheneofejiro Godswill Uzokpa, a 28-year-old Nigerian national, was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for conducting a romance scam that defrauded at least a dozen victims, primarily elderly or disabled women, of hundreds of thousands of dollars between March 2020 and February 2021. Uzokpa and co-conspirators created fake online identities posing as professionals abroad, built romantic relationships with victims to gain trust, then requested money under false pretenses such as processing fees, using U.S.-based "money mules" to transfer the stolen funds to Nigeria. The court ordered Uzokpa to pay $329
justice.gov
· 2025-12-08
Trung Nguyen, a 48-year-old from Danvers, Massachusetts, was convicted of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and money laundering after converting over $1 million in cash to Bitcoin between 2017 and 2020 through his company National Vending, LLC. Nguyen deliberately circumvented federal anti-money laundering regulations and knowingly facilitated transactions for criminals, including a methamphetamine dealer ($250,000) and multiple romance scam victims from whom he converted approximately $445,000 in stolen funds. Sentencing is scheduled for February 12, 2025.
justice.gov
· 2025-12-08
A Nigerian national, Ogheneofejiro Godswill Uzokpa, was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for operating a romance scam that defrauded at least a dozen victims—primarily elderly and disabled women—of hundreds of thousands of dollars between March 2020 and February 2021. Uzokpa and his co-conspirators posed as romantic interests online, built trust with victims, then requested money under false pretenses such as processing fees, using U.S.-based money mules to transfer funds to Nigeria. The judge ordered him to pay $329,470 in restitution to his victims.