Friday, June 7, 2024 -A Nigerian national, Uchenna Christian Nlemchi was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay $524,000 in restitution and a money judgment in the amount of $868,295 for his role in a hybrid romance scam and business email compromise scheme.
Nlemchi was extradited from
Hungary to the United States of America last year.
There is no parole in the federal system.
U.S. Attorney Alexander M.M. Uballez and
Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, made
the announcement in a statement on Thursday, June 6, 2024.
According to court documents, the scheme
began in July 2015 when a co-conspirator initiated 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 the
victim but instructed her to send him money for supposed business expenses.
On September 13, 2015, Uchenna
Nlemchi opened a personal bank account at Amegy Bank in his own name.
Sixteen days later, he opened a fraudulent
business bank account at the same bank in the name of the non-existent
"Jay Auto & Machine Parts," listing himself as the sole owner.
Following the co-conspirator’s instructions
over the next few months, the victim made several transfers into accounts
controlled by Nlemchi totaling over $375,000 from her retirement savings and a
home equity loan. This included wiring $45,000 on October 7th to another
person's account, before sending $35,000 directly to the "Jay Auto &
Machine Parts" account on October 9th, the same day the other person wired
$44,000 into that account.
On October
22nd, the victim transferred $125,346 from her and her late husband's IRA
accounts into Nlemchi’s "Jay Auto & Machine Parts" bank account. Then on
December 7th, she took out a $170,000 home equity loan and immediately
transferred the full amount to that account.
Separately in late 2015, a German citizen
attempting to purchase a Miami condo received fraudulent wire instructions
after a hacker compromised her attorney's email.
The German victim then wired money intended
for the condo purchase to the New Mexico victim’s account. A co-conspirator
then instructed the New Mexico victim to forward over $200,000 of those funds
to Nlemchi’s accounts.
Nlemchi rapidly withdrew and transferred
globally over $868,000 that was deposited into the "Jay Auto & Machine
Parts" account from the New Mexico victim and other fraud proceeds.
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 attended Texas Southern University. He was
arrested in Houston, Texas in 2017 and released on electronic monitoring in the
third-party custody of his wife and ordered to surrender his passport.
Nlemchi escaped from his monitoring system
and fled to Mexico, then to Brazil, then back to his home in 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 completing his term of imprisonment,
Nlemchi will be required to serve 3 years of supervised release and will be
subject to deportation proceedings.
The Albuquerque Division of the FBI
investigated this case with assistance from the Albuquerque Police Department
during the extradition process.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Peña
is prosecuting the case.
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