Looking for love can sometimes lead you to get scammed. A Colorado woman looking for romance was targeted by a Minnesota man in a $1.6 million cryptocurrency scam.
In early 2018, Adetomiwa Seun Akindele posed as an Italian-American businessman named Frank Labato while using a dating website. There, he allegedly made contact with a widow from Colorado who ended up being his next target.
The 37-year-old used phone calls to feed the woman phony details about his work background. He also sent her fake photos to sell his online persona. After a month or so, Akindele told the woman that he was involved in a financial crisis and needed money to get out of it. He convinced the woman to open a cryptocurrency account, which she wired more than $1.6 million.
Akindele proceeded to launder that money before converting it into U.S. dollars and putting it into his own accounts. After that, he gave the widow a number of fake promises to reassure her she would be repaid.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Colorado, Akindele was indicted on 10 counts of wire fraud and 11 counts of money laundering.
Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/minnesota-man-indicted-romance-scam-targeting-colorado-woman