Lagos, June 25, 2026 – A United States District Court has sentenced Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo, a 42-year-old Nigerian, to five years in prison over a multi-million-dollar online fraud.
Nwadialo, who was elected the Chairman of the Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State in September 2024, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Texas airport on his arrival in the United States.
He was sentenced following a December 2023 indictment charging him with 14 counts of wire fraud related to an online romance scam that defrauded eight victims of approximately $3.5 million over 15 years.
At the sentencing hearing, Tiffany M. Cartwright, the U.S. District Judge, described the financial and emotional impact on the victims as devastating, noting that the scheme caused significant personal isolation and distress.
Cartwright called the crime “devastating,” adding that that it is “not an exaggeration to say it ruined lives—not only financial lives” but also from the nonmonetary harms the victims endured, such as “shame, depression, and isolation from their own family.”
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd also said the defendant manipulated vulnerable individuals by inventing various false personas and scenarios to gain their trust and financial assets.
“He spun tale after tale to gain the victims’ trust and their money – even claiming to run a non-profit providing services for autistic children. No scheme was too low for these conspirators.”
W. Mike Harrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office, said: “For years, Mr. Nwadialo preyed on vulnerable victims looking for relationships online, gained their trust, and told them lies to steal their life savings totaling millions of dollars.”
According to court records, Nwadialo operated under various false names on digital dating platforms, falsely claiming to be a military officer deployed overseas to avoid in-person meetings.
He routinely requested large sums of money from victims under the pretense of paying military fines, handling family funeral expenses, or funding school tuition.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI Seattle field office, and prosecutors confirmed that the court has ordered appropriate legal accountability for the total financial losses incurred by the victims.
