A Nigerian national living in the United States, Uchenna Nlemchi, has been sentenced to 51 months in prison for his role in a hybrid romance scam and business email compromise scheme.
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 published on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Mexico website.
Nlemchi’s sentencing follows his extradition from Hungary to the United States in 2023. He was an international fugitive for over five years until he was apprehended.
The court also ordered him to pay $524,000 in restitution and a money judgement of $868,295.
According to court documents, the scheme began in July 2015, when a co-conspirator set up a romance scam with a 56-year-old widow in New Mexico under the alias “Sean Bartlett.”
The co-conspirator convinced the victim that he was an engineer working on lucrative oil contracts and offered to marry her in exchange for money for business expenses.
On September 13, 2015, Nlemchi opened a personal bank account with Amegy Bank in his name. Sixteen days later, Nlemchi opened a fraudulent business bank account at the same bank under the name of the non-existent “Jay Auto & Machine Parts,” claiming sole ownership.
Over the next few months, the victim transferred funds from her retirement savings and a home equity loan into Nlemchi-controlled accounts totaling more than $375,000, as instructed by the co-conspirator.
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 buy a Miami condo received fraudulent wire instructions after a hacker compromised her attorney’s email address. The German victim then transferred funds intended for the condo purchase to the New Mexico victim’s account. A co-conspirator then instructed the New Mexico victim to transfer more than $200,000 to Nlemchi’s accounts.
Nlemchi quickly withdrew and transferred over $868,000 from the New Mexico victim’s “Jay Auto & Machine Parts” account, as well as other fraud proceeds. Nlemchi gave up the fraudulent accounts on February 29, 2016, as bank investigators closed in.
Nlemchi was studying at Texas Southern University while in the United States on a student visa and in 2017, he was arrested in Houston, Texas, and released on electronic monitoring in his wife’s third-party custody. He was also ordered to surrender his passport.
Nlemchi escaped his monitoring system and fled to Mexico, then Brazil, before returning to Nigeria.
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.
