Online romance scheme tricks bereaved victims, others out of $1 million, feds say
An Ohio man was sentenced to jail time for his role in a scheme that defrauded older adults looking for romance and companionship online, officials said.
Delove Kofi Amuzu, 25, of Cincinnati, was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for money laundering, according to a June 12 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
Amuzu must also pay $835,487.65 in restitution, officials said.
Amuzu and his conspirators, posing as people romantically interested in their targets, would instruct victims to send them large sums of money or high-value items, officials said.
More than $1.1 million was laundered into accounts in Ghana controlled by Amuzu, officials said. This is a portion of the total amount generated in the scheme as victims also sent Amuzu’s co-conspirators money.
He pleaded guilty Feb. 2 to the charge, officials said.
“Delove expresses great remorse for his actions and the victims involved,” his attorney, Brad Moermond, told McClatchy News in a statement.
“He has accepted his responsibility in this crime and was taken into custody without incident. The Government and I agree that Delove was not the leader of this conspiracy and I am hopeful the masterminds of this conspiracy will be taken into custody,” Moermond said.
The scheme
Amuzu created fake online dating profiles with stolen photos and fabricated biographical details and targeted older adults, widows and widowers, officials said.
“In other words, people who were particularly vulnerable,” Amuzu’s sentencing memo stated.
Amuzu communicated with his victims via chat, text messages and phone calls, court records show.
To sell the scheme, Amuzu would pretend to be someone who lived abroad, “such as deployed service members or business professionals on extended overseas trips,” making him unable to meet with the victims in person, according to court records.
“The requests for money would start rolling in” once the victims developed a “romantic attachment” to the imaginary partner, officials said.
The victims
An 81-year-old victim bought three Rolex watches for $40,000, mailed a check for $74,200 and took out a second mortgage on top of additional loans at Amuzu’s request before filing for bankruptcy, court records show.
In total, she lost about $400,000 in the scheme, officials said.
Another victim lost $940,000 in the scheme, which also required him to mail Amuzu 16 iPhones, court records show.
In a separate case, the conspirators defrauded the same woman twice, costing her nearly $275,000, using two different dating profiles, according to court records.
She had lost her husband to cancer and daughter to diabetes and was “feeling lonely,” according to court records.
Overall, several victims had to declare bankruptcy, U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker said in the release.
The U.S. attorney’s office encourages anyone who suspects they or someone they love is a victim of a similar fraud to report it by calling the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-37283-11 or go here to the Department of Justice’s Elder Justice Initiative website.
This story was originally published June 14, 2024 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Online romance scheme tricks bereaved victims, others out of $1 million, feds say."
