Man Admits Role In Scamming RI Seniors Looking For Love | #lovescams | #military | #datingscams

PROVIDENCE, RI — A Texas man pleaded guilty to multiple charges in connection with online romance scams in at least eleven states, including Rhode Island, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

The man, 52-year-old Fola Alabi, of Richmond, Texas, told a federal judge that he created companies and opened bank accounts that were used to launder more than $1.6 million in proceeds from unsuspecting seniors that a member of the conspiracy befriended online.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said that a person helping Alabi often posed as a general in the U.S. military serving overseas, feigning a personal, and sometimes romantic, interest in his victims, and convinced them to send substantial sums of money—usually in the form of bank checks or cash—to Alabi.

One of Alabi’s victims is a Rhode Island widow who sent who she believed was a “General Miller” $60,000 in order to ‘finance shipments of his personal belongings to the United States,’ the U.S. Attorney’s Office added. The woman was only made aware of the potential fraud when she was asked to send additional money to “General Miller,” after which her bank determined she was likely being victimized.

Alabi was arrested in May 2022 after federal agents discovered photos and videos of packages containing cash and checks received by Alabi from victims of the scam, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

A plea agreement states that losses relating to the scam perpetrated by Alabi and others involved total $1,640,421, according to the attorney’s office. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Alabi will forfeit assets derived from his criminal conduct, including his Texas home and $31,773.22 in his bank account.

Alabi is scheduled to be sentenced on April 25.