A North Texas man was sentenced for an online romance scheme that defrauded senior citizens of $1.5 million dollars.
The Richmond man, 52-year-old Fola Alabi, was sentenced to 37 months in prison in addition to three years of probation by a U.S. District Court in Rhode Island.
He was also ordered to pay restitution, which included his home valued at $560,000.
Alabi used fake dating profiles that featured photographs and personal information of real U.S. generals. He usually targeted divorced or widowed women in their 70s and 80s with fraudulent requests for financial assistance.
According to the Department of Justice, Alabi would feign romantic interest before ultimately defrauding his victims.
In one case, Alabi posed as a man named “General Miller” to defraud a woman of $60,000 after telling her he needed help moving his personal belongings back to the U.S. from an overseas deployment.
The woman made a check payable to a company that Alabi had started and mailed the check to Alabi’s Richmond home.
The woman nearly sent more money to Alabi, but her bank and local police stopped the transaction.
Other victims also sent multiple checks to Alabi’s multiple shell companies. Alabi used the money to pay for his Richmond mortgage but usually quickly transferred large amounts to offshore bank accounts in India and China.
Alabi victimized people in, at minimum, eleven U.S. states. Those states included Arizona, California, Idaho, South Dakota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Texas.
Two of the generals that Alabi posed as provided prosecutors with victim impact statements, both stating that their online impersonation continues to victimize them.
Alabi pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and money laundering in January, setting the stage for this month’s sentencing.
According to the Dallas crime analytics dashboard, as of April 27, cases of swindling, false pretenses, and confidence gaming are up roughly 5% in the City of Dallas year-over-year.
The slight jump highlights the risks citizens take when financially interacting with strangers online.
