Nigerian national sentenced for love affair

FBI News:

ALBUQUERQUE — A Nigerian national was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay $524,000 in restitution and a money judgment totaling $868,295 for his role in a hybrid romance and business email compromise scam .

There is no parole in the federal system.

According to court documents, the scheme began in July 2015 when a co-conspirator launched a romance scam with a 56-year-old widow in New Mexico using the alias “Sean Bartlett.” The co-conspirator convinced the victim that he was an engineer working on lucrative oil contracts and promised to marry her, but asked her to send him money for supposed business expenses.

On September 13, 2015, Uchenna Nlemchi opened a personal bank account at Amegy Bank in her own name. Sixteen days later, Nlemchi opened a fraudulent business bank account at the same bank in the name of the non-existent company “Jay Auto & Machine Parts,” posing as the sole owner.

Following the co-conspirator's instructions over the next several months, the victim made several transfers to accounts controlled by Nlemchi totaling more than $375,000 from his retirement savings and a home equity loan. This included transferring $45,000 on October 7 to another person's account, before sending $35,000 directly to the “Jay Auto & Machine Parts” account on October 9, the same day the other person transferred $44,000 to this account. On October 22, the victim transferred $125,346 from her and her late husband's IRA accounts to Nlemchi's “Jay Auto & Machine Parts” bank account. Then, on December 7, she took out a home equity loan for $170,000 and immediately transferred the entire amount to that account.

Separately, in late 2015, a German citizen attempting to purchase a condo in Miami received fraudulent electronic instructions after a hacker compromised her attorney's email. The German victim then wired the money intended for the purchase of the condo to the New Mexico victim's account. A co-conspirator then directed the New Mexico victim to transfer more than $200,000 of those funds to Nlemchi's accounts.

Nlemchi quickly withdrew and globally transferred more than $868,000 deposited into the New Mexico victim's “Jay Auto & Machine Parts” account along with other proceeds of the fraud. Nlemchi abandoned the fraudulent accounts on February 29, 2016, as bank investigators closed in.

At the time, Nlemchi was in the United States on a student visa and attending Texas Southern University. He was arrested in Houston, Texas, in 2017 and released on electronic monitoring into the custody of his wife by a third party and ordered to surrender his passport. Nlemchi escaped his surveillance system and fled to Mexico, then Brazil, then returned home to Nigeria. Nlemchi was an international fugitive for more than five years until his arrest in Hungary in 2023.

Nlemchi pleaded guilty in federal court to one count each of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in February 2024.

After serving his prison sentence, Nlemchi will have to serve 3 years of supervised release and will be subject to deportation proceedings.

U.S. Attorney Alexander MM Uballez and Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Albuquerque Field Office, made the announcement.

The Albuquerque Division of the FBI investigated this case with assistance from the Albuquerque Police Department during the extradition process. Assistant United States Attorney Jeremy Peña is prosecuting the case.