Germannig: Nigerian man arrested in UK on Illinois fraud charges
FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. — A Nigerian national, who is wanted in Illinois for scamming women in the United States, was arrested in London Saturday as he attempted to board a flight to South Africa. This arrest was announced by Stephen R. Wigginton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois. This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's St. Louis Field Office of the Chicago Division. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in St. Louis and the Fairview Heights office of U.S. Secret Service assisted in the investigation. Olayinka Ilumsa Sunmola, 31, of Lagos, Nigeria, was arrested Aug. 9 in connection with a recently unsealed indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Illinois. Sunmola was arrested by London Metropolitan Police at Heathrow Airport as he was about to board a British Airways flight bound for Johannesburg, South Africa, where he currently resides and conducts his activities. Sunmola was indicted Nov. 20 in an eight-count suppressed indictment charging him with various federal criminal offenses in connection with his operation of a romance scam targeting women in the United States. According to the indictment, Sunmola created several bogus online profiles on dating websites portraying himself as a U.S. citizen currently or formerly in the U.S. military and temporarily doing business in South Africa. The indictment alleges that Sunmola victimized least 30 women in the United States. Over the course of several months, the indictment states, Sunmola cultivated a romantic relationship with each victim by sending flowers, stuffed animals, greeting cards and candy. His purpose was to lead each of his victims to believe that she was his one true love, his sole love interest and the woman with whom he intended to spend the rest of his life, the indictment states. After successfully drawing women into a romantic relationship, Sunmola began manufacturing phony emergencies requiring increasingly large amounts of money from his victims. He played upon each victim's romantic feelings and vulnerability, and manipulated and groomed them to bilk them of their cash, assets and credit worthiness. One victim described in the indictment was unwittingly drawn into a scheme involving counterfeit or stolen traveler's checks. As a result of her innocent involvement in cashing the checks for Sunmola, she was arrested by local police, jailed and charged with theft by deception and forgery, the indictment alleges. The indictment further alleges that another Illinois victim was induced to purchase a webcam and pose in a sexually suggestive position. She later learned that Sunmola was making a video recording. He threatened to post the sexually suggestive images on the Internet. According to the indictment, Sunmola told the woman that by the time he was done with her she would want to kill herself. He pledged to ruin her life if she did not continue to send him the money he demanded. Sunmola was charged with conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, and extortion. If convicted of all offenses, he faces a maximum prison sentence of 127 years, a fine of $100,000 on each of the eight counts of the indictment, and five years of supervised release. A trial date will be set after extradition proceedings have been completed, which could take several months. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bruce Reppert and Nathan Stump, Southern District of Illinois, are prosecuting this case. The Illinois Attorney General's Office referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney's Office for investigation as part of an ongoing partnership between the two offices to identify, investigate and prosecute international scammers who prey upon Illinois residents. This prosecution is also part of a larger initiative with the Chicago Office of the Federal Trade Commission to target romance scammers. An indictment is a formal charge against a defendant that is comprised of the essential facts constituting the offense charged. Under the law, a defendant is presumed to be innocent of a charge until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt to the satisfaction of a jury.
Daewang: You are the only evil person here. Accursed soul. You and your ancestors, parents, children, descendants are cursed and damned to damnation and destruction. Your grandparents dirty souls are already burning in hell. Soon it will be your mother's turn then your bastard father.
China India Dubai, U.A.E Malaysia South Africa Kenya Vietnam Thailand Germany United states Brazil Not to mention other West African countries
Tell me which one doesn't experience the ibo "hospitality" All these countries are evil too I guess. Developers of the highest level.
Daewang: You and your parents will die miserably like dogs. Cursed miserable life. You are damned to destruction.
No, evil people like don't make the rules. Hateful people like you ultimately get consumed by hate. That is the rule of the universe, I did not make create it.You are destined to be consumed by hate just like your forefathers.
Daewang: Your entire family, ancestors and descendants are cursed
You are angry at the wrong man and the wrong people. I did not make your life miserable. The Yoruba did not make your life miserable. The hate will eat you from inside out like it did to your parents and you will also die a miserable death.
NkayStory: Whenever i read Yorubas accusing Igbos of being "criminals" blablabla i just laugh to myself while Smh!
There are criminals in every race, country or creed. But you have to admit the scope and the frequency of Ibo criminals are a little bit higher than any of the other Nigerian groups.
Daewang: The only good afonja is a dead afonja. These animals should be shot.
The pain is real. How horrible and frustrating must it feel to hate something or someone but you are absolutely powerless and unable to do anything about it.
Monster-Nation State’, where democratization of hate, insecurity, barbarism and backwardness is the order of the day-----worse than the contraption we call Nigeria that we are seeking to exit from.
This is the certain future of Biafra if the same characters we see today are going to lead the country.
Asari Dokubo and Nnamdi Kanu and a host of other blood thirsty buffoons in the same small space fighting over limited resources.
sharpwriter: Hmmmn... Such arrogance... Buhari hasn't even been sworn in and they are making it clear they will retain power... If my Yoruba leaders can't still have sense, I wonder who will give them one. This swinging pendulum of troubles shall surely end somewhere.
Are Yoruba supposed to be worried about every loony tune?
thatigboman: typical afonja, paper tiger. See yoruba boy calling igbo man coward. Irony of the century. U and your generation are fulani slaves. It is not your fault that you are worthless. If not for whiteman and igbos, u would have had emir of ogbomosho, emir of osogbo, emir of ile ife, emir of oyo and emir of lagos by now.
Aba made history, I am sure you an alumni of the Upper Iweka under the bridge University.
Olawalesmarter,you need to do independent research and stop regurgitating falsehoods. Almost every African tribe had the history of killing twins. It wasn't just peculiar with the southeastern part of Nigeria. Just do a simple research and find out the truth.
There's no history of killing twins in Yorubaland. Twins were actually venerated.
matify83: Nigeria only focus on capital projects with little or no bearing to alleviating poverty in the land.
China industrialized their way out of abject poverty of the 1980s. That template is an open secret for Nigeria to copy but our leaders are bereft of such ideas.
What then is the purpose of the free trade zones if not to invite private investors? Our problem particularly in Nigeria is electricity and convoluted government policies in regard to setting up businesses. Some factories cannot run on generators.