Wednesday, September 17, 2025 - A 37-year-old Nigerian national, Adetomiwa Seun Akindele, has been sentenced to 71 months in federal prison in Minnesota, United States for defrauding a widow out of $1.6m in a romance scheme.
Akindele, who had been residing in Minnesota prior to his
arrest, was ordered to pay $1,692,945 in restitution, and a forfeiture money
judgement in the same amount after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud
and one count of money laundering. Upon serving his sentence, Akindele will be
deported to Nigeria.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of
Colorado made the announcement in a press statement issued by the Department of
Justice on Tuesday, September 16, 2025.
According to the plea agreement, beginning in January 2018,
and continuing until October 2018, Akindele posed as a wealthy Italian American
businessman, “Frank Labato,” on a dating website, where he met a widowed
Colorado woman.
In February 2018, Akindele began emailing the victim, and in
March 2018, the two began exchanging telephone calls.
During these communications, Akindele provided the victim
with additional false details about his personal and work background, images,
and photos, to substantiate his fictitious persona of “Frank.”
In March 2018, Akindele represented to the victim that he
had encountered a financial crisis related to his purported work abroad for
which he claimed to need money, funds, and assistance from the victim.
At Akindele’s direction, the victim opened a cryptocurrency
exchange account, where she eventually wired over $1.6 million dollars as
directed by Akindele. From there, Akindele converted the money into various
cryptocurrencies, laundered it across multiple crypto exchanges and then
converted it back into U.S. dollars and deposited it into his own bank
accounts.
Akindele fraudulently represented to the victim that he
would repay her for the requested “loans” to his business. Over the course of
the scheme, Akindele executed three fraudulent “promissory notes” to reassure
the victim that she would be repaid.
“This sentence both serves justice to the victim and helps
prevent this individual from scamming someone else,” said United States
Attorney Peter McNeilly. “This case should be a reminder to the public to
be cautious when engaging with people they meet online - especially
when those people are asking for money.”
“Romance scammers are relentless and cunning, preying on
trust and emotion to exploit victims,” said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge
Mark Michalek. “This was an egregious case, and through relentless
investigative work the perpetrator was tracked down and brought to justice.”
United States District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney presided
over the sentencing.
The FBI Denver Field Office conducted the
investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Martha A. Paluch handled
the prosecution.
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