Prison term for key player in romance scam that cheated SF women
A man born in Liberia, raised in Nigeria and given asylum in America, whose pivotal role in a ‘romance scam’ that cheated a San Francisco retiree out of $400,000 was exposed by the U.S. Secret Service, received a ‘year and a day’ prison sentence this afternoon in federal court.
Kinston Osagie, 56, worked with his Nigeria-based brother to swindle millions of dollars from victims. The pair had a history of creating fake profiles on dating websites and impersonating a range of characters, from U.S. Air Force generals to German politicians, to take advantage of their targets.
He earlier pleaded guilty to three federal counts of money laundering. Prosecutors say that his victims – numbering at least 20 – together lost nearly $1,700,000 to the fraudster.
“He not only wiped out all my accounts, he did major damage to my emotional state,” one victim told the court today. “I kept on thinking, if I just killed myself, I wouldn’t have to face the consequences.”
“How can he claim he didn’t know what he was doing,” she asked.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered Osagie to surrender himself to the Bureau of Prisons on February 23, 2024 to begin his sentence.
His brother, Roland Ighiwiyisi, remains in Nigeria.
Osagie became a U.S. citizen in 2002, having been born in the west African nation of Liberia and brought up in Nigeria. Prosecutors say that, between 2015 and 2020, he maintained at least 18 different bank accounts through which he received, or attempted to receive, more than $3 million “primarily” from romance scam victims who were tricked into transferring money to his accounts.
The brothers’ modus operandi was to set up accounts on dating websites and other apps – such as ‘Words with Friends’ – under a number of assumed personas. After a relationship had been forged, unwitting women were asked to supply large amounts of money to help the person they were communicating with through a short-term financial crisis, with assurances they would be paid back.
Others’ were involved in their scheme including a person referred to in the indictment as an “unnamed co-conspirator”.
One victim of the romance scam was a retired San Francisco lady who, over two months in 2019, sent a total of $401,449.02 to Osagie’s bank accounts to someone she thought was a middle-aged businessman named Mattias. This included all of the money she had saved in her retirement account. It was these transactions that formed the basis of the Government’s money laundering charges against the defendant.
Another victim, speaking with great composure, told the court today of the “shock, sleepless nights, the depression and desperation” she felt when she found out that she had lost the money in her IRA thanks to Osagie’s deception.
“There were so many lies: there were fake lawyers and all sorts of fake documentation.”
“He not only wiped out my accounts, he did major damage to my emotional state. I kept on thinking, if I just killed myself, I wouldn’t have to face the consequences.”
“It was a bunch of lies and bullshit.”
She noted that it will take Osagie 14,000 years to pay back to pay back the victims at the rate he proposed and, of the sentence, said “he deserves 20 years.”
“I have been struck by the victim statements that I read,” said U.S. District Judge Susan Illston at the start of the hearing. “This was a really pernicious and cruel scheme that was perpetrated on them and I would be inclined to sentence more severely although I understand the Mr Osagie’s part in it was somewhat less direct.”
She pressed attorneys for the Government for more information on who, specifically, was responsible for sending the communications to the victims. “He surely would have known more than you or I,” the Judge said, glancing at Osagie, “so what did he say?”
“I don’t think any of his statements were helpful,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Galen Phillips.
“Our presumption is that the brother is more proximate to the underlying wire fraud but, beyond that, I can’t provide anything else to the court.”
Asked if the investigation had concluded, Phillips told the court that “probably, unfortunately enough” it was. “Scams, particularly cyber-scams are so rampant, we are really getting referrals on a daily basis.”
Illston sentenced Osagie to 12 months and one day in prison and ordered him to surrender himself to the Bureau of Prisons on February 23, 2024. She ordered that he pay the victims restitution in the amount of $1,696,162.37 at a notional rate of $300 per month, which could be varied up or down.
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