The Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested Ebuka Iwuagwu, a Nigerian based in Atlanta, for allegedly swindling the U.S. government of COVID-19 funds and other victims in a coordinated romance scam worth hundreds of millions of naira, according to court filings.
Iwuagwu, 39, was indicted on April 2 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Eastern Division in Judge Calabrese’s courtroom.
His indictment on eight counts of money laundering and money laundering conspiracy paved the way for his arrest on Monday after FBI agents linked him to four separate complaints from victims of romance fraud that occurred between March and May 2020.
The first victim, a resident of Strongsville in Ohio, wired $37,500 to Mr Iwuagwu, while the second victim, who was living in California, transferred $20,800 to an account titled Woodslayer Companies LLC, which had the Nigerian man as the sole signatory.
Victims 3 and 4 sent $21,565 and $65,500 to a Trice checking account registered under a fictitious name which FBI agents believed to be Mr Iwuagwu, another offence that complicateshis case.
The accused was said to have conspired with other persons to execute the scams while avoiding detection from the U.S. security agencies.
As the COVID-19 pandemic raged in 2020, Mr Iwuagwu created fake staff identities from his fake company to receive about $52,000 in relief funds from the Washington Security Employment Department, violating Title 18 of the U.S. Code.
The FBI found that Mr Iwuagwu withdrew and transferred the relief funds to his co-conspirators in a way that obfuscated the money’s connection to wire fraud.
Between April 3, 2020 and April 8, 2020, Mr Iwuagwu made a series of transactions totalling $18,000 from funds intended for unemployed people to his own personal account. Iwuagwu had been previously arrested in January 2024 by the local police. However, allegations of defrauding the U.S. government have made him a person of interest to the FBI, whose agents are keen on recovering the stolen funds. Records showed his wife filed to end marriage with him in early 2022, and a judge granted a dissolution order in August 2022.