A Nigerian, Uchenna Christian Nlemchi has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison.
Nlemch was also ordered to pay $524,000 in restitution and a money judgment in the amount of $868,295 for involvement in a hybrid romance scam and business email compromise scheme.
The Daily Crucible reports that a federal grand jury had indicted Nlemchi on May 24, 2017. Court records showed that in 2015, Nlemchi opened a bank account in Houston, Texas in the name of Jay Auto & Machine Parts, a fictional business, with the intent to siphon proceeds of political corruption in Nigeria to another individual in Nigeria. Between September 2015 and February 2016, Nlemchi received $868,295 into the account. Nlemchi withdrew approximately $167,000 in cash in person, $32,000 from ATMs, and transferred $75,000 to his personal bank account. Nlemchi transferred the rest of the money to various businesses and individuals at the direction of his co-conspirators.
In his plea agreement, Nlemchi admitted that he learned the money was procured through romance scams that his co-conspirators were running, not political corruption, and that by receiving the money, he facilitated the scams.
Nlemchi was arrested on the indictment in June of 2017 and released on conditions pending trial but in October 2017, Nlemchi violated the conditions of his release, and fled the country.
He was believed to have returned to his native Nigeria but the FBI pursued Nlemchi for five years before locating him in Hungary where he was extradited to the United States and arrested on June 6, 2023 to face the justice system there – where 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.
