Two Nigerians, Chinagorom Onwumere and Stephen Anagor, have been sentenced to over 13 years in prison for their involvement in romance scam and wire fraud that resulted into the death of an elderly U.S. citizen.

Judge Clifton L. Corker of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville sentenced the duo and their ally, Salma Abdalkareem, a 29-year-old Sudanese, U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

The judge sentenced Mr Onwumere, 36,  to four and half years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges on conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aiding and abetting aggravated stalking resulting in death, aiding and abetting money laundering. 

Mr Anagor, 37, was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aiding and abetting money launderin amongst others.

According to filed court documents, Messrs Anagor and Onwumere (both from Nigeria) met during military training in South Carolina in June 2023.  

“Anagor recruited Onwumere and Onwumere’s wife, Abdalkareem (a citizen of Sudan), to assist a relative in Nigeria in carrying out romance scams perpetrated on victims around the United States,” said the documents.

In the romance scam spearheaded by Messrs Anagor and Onwumere, their relative in Nigeria would impersonate famous celebrities and con victims, usually elderly adults targeted online, into believing they were in a romantic relationship with famous celebrities. 

Upon establishing fake romance relationship with their victims based in the U.S., members of the fraud scheme exploit their victims, swindling them of their monies.

“Members of the conspiracy would then engage in various devices to obtain money from the victims, such as the need for help with taxes on luxury vehicles, background investigation fees needed for employment, membership fees that would permit unique access to the celebrities, etc,” DoJ said.

It added, “On multiple occasions, victims were told that the scammers were with federal law enforcement and had to pay fees and fines to halt investigations initiated by the celebrities or their management.”

Messrs Onwumere and Anagor will be on supervised release for five years and will be required to repay the victims $388,500 in restitution.

The duo are the latest addition to a list of Nigerians wreaking havoc abroad in defrauding people and organisations.