Nigerian man, 33, bags 27-year jail term in the United States for internet love scam
A Nigerian fraudster Olayinka Ilumsa Sunmola has been sentenced to 27 years in jail in the United States for swindling many American women of millions of dollars.
Sunmola and his accomplices reportedly paraded themselves as American soldiers stationed overseas to orchestrate the crime they committed in the space of 7 years (2007 to 2014).
The love scam organisation based in South Africa also paraded themselves as engineers working on a large government contract in the country.
Sunmola, 33, would send unsuspecting women poetry, cards, flowers, stuffed animals, and chocolates until he they fell for him. He and his cohorts used pictures of men they found online, even pictures of dead servicemen from memorial websites.
Soon after the gang’s victims fell heads over heels in love, the scammers began to manufacture emergencies, demanding increasingly large amounts of money each time.
He was said to have driven some of his victims to bankruptcy, and at least one to the brink of suicide with his fraudulent activities.
Prosecutors said during the hearing on Thursday that Sunmola lavished the money he fraudulently acquired on parties, two Range Rovers, four properties in South Africa and a $363,000 (N140million) home in Nigeria.
Sunmola had, in November 2013, been indicted by a federal grand jury sitting in East St. Louis on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, and interstate extortion.
He pleaded guilty to eight felonies, including mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, and interstate extortion after two days of a jury trial.
The Lagos-born convict was sentenced by Judge David Herndon of a US district Court in East St. Louis. He will also pay a sum of $1.7m (about N400million).
Judge Herndon said during his ruling “Conspiracy,’ ‘mail and wire fraud,’ and ‘interstate extortion’ hardly sound like the kinds of crimes that leave broken lives, wrecked women, fractured families, devastation, desires to die, humiliation and shame so extreme.
“But then, his charm turned to bullying, name calling, extortion, unthinkable demands and threats. Thoughts of paradise turned into thoughts of hell and, for some, thoughts of suicide. The most devastating crime one could ever imagine without laying hands or even eyes on another human being.”
Sunmola will be deported to Nigeria after the completion of his 27-year prison term. He would be nearly 60 years old.
