A Nigerian man is facing federal charges in the U.S for preying on
and targeting hundreds of them including residents of the St. Louis
area, using fake dating profiles in order to extort money from them.
Olayinka
Ilumsa Sunmola, 32, on Wednesday, March 2, pleaded guilty to eight
counts of a federal indictment and admitted that he was the ringleader
of
a group that successfully wooed hundreds of women online, then
convinced them to send cash to bail him out of phony emergencies..
Sunmola
seduced women online by creating fake online profiles using photos and
names of real American men, including claiming to a former U.S. soldier.
He sent flowers, candies, stuffed animals and more to his victims,
conning them into believing that each was his true love. Once the women
were convinced of his love for them, he would request money from them
claiming phony emergencies. Some of the women sent thousands of dollars.
The
victims were not named but lived around the country, including in
Mascoutah and Bond County in Illinois and St. Charles and St. Louis
counties in Missouri.
In one case, Sunmola tricked one woman
into cashing counterfeit or stolen traveler’s checks. She contemplated
suicide when arrested. He lured
another into performing sexual acts, which he recorded via webcam, they
said. He then threatened to ruin her life by publishing the recordings
online if she
didn't send him cash, warning that by the time he was done with her she
would want to kill herself.
A Bond County woman bought electronics and shipped them to Sunmola,
reshipped items he’d bought using stolen credit card information and
took out cash advances on a credit card, forcing herself into bankruptcy
with debts of at least $98,000, the indictment claims.
The investigation included the U.S. Postal Inspection Service,
the Federal Trade Commission, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S.
Secret Service and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, as well as
South African officials, who investigated Sunmola's activities there and
started forfeiture proceedings for his assets there.
Sunmola
was
indicted in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis in 2013 on mail fraud,
wire fraud, conspiracy, and interstate extortion charges. He was
arrested in August 2014 by Scotland Yard as he was about to board a
flight from
London to South Africa, then extradited here to face the charges.
"Basically,
the evidence established that Sunmola, a citizen of the federal
Republic of Nigeria, was a ringleader of a criminal organization
operating withing South Africa that targeted and stole from hundreds of
women across the United States," Acting United States Attorney James
Porter stated.
"Our office will continue to pursue justice for
these victims in Sunmola's prison sentence and in our never-ending
efforts to get restitution." Porter added.
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