Kenneth G. Akpieyi, 44, from Georgia, was convicted in a Louisiana federal court on July 25 for his role in a romance scheme involving stringing women along online and then extracting millions of dollars from them.
Akpieyi was convicted by the jury on all three counts of the superseding indictment, which included conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, as well as mail fraud related to a years-long romance scam, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Evidence presented during the trial revealed that Akpieyi played a key role in defrauding women through a scheme in which perpetrators presented themselves to victims, who were mostly women, as romantic partners, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Fake “Romeo” convicted in a Louisiana federal court for romance scam. What are “fake Romeos?”
These “fake Romeos” used Facebook, Instagram and other platforms in order to conduct a romance scheme, where scammers created fake online identities and pretended to be in romantic relationships with a victim to steal money or personal information.
After gaining trust of the victims, conspirators would ask the victims to move their conversations to WhatsApp, or another encrypted platform, and then foster a romantic relationship before asking victims to send money for fraudulent reasons, such as to help with charitable work or to assist sick family members, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Akpieyi received funds from the victims under the alias “Phillip Anderson” at his residence in Marietta, Georgia. Akpieyi also used his company, KGA Autobrokers, LLC, in order to funnel money to other bank accounts, using accounts at different banks to obscure the movement of victims’ money, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
During the trial, eight victims explained how they has been defrauded through the scheme, and testified to total losses of more than $3 million.
U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo scheduled Akpieyi’s sentencing for Nov. 5, 2025.
Messages that Shreya Datta, a tech professional who was a victim of an online scam known as “pig butchering,” exchanged with a person who would later turn out to be a scammer are displayed on her phone in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 9, 2024. The “wine trader” wooed her online for months with his flirtatious smile and emoji-sprinkled texts. Then he went for the kill, defrauding the Philadelphia-based tech professional out of $450,000 in a cryptocurrency romance scam. The con, which drained Datta, 37, of her savings and retirement funds while saddling her with debt, involved the use of deepfakes and a script so sophisticated that she felt her “brain was hacked.” (Photo by Bastien INZAURRALDE / AFP) (Photo by BASTIEN INZAURRALDE/AFP via Getty Images)
The maximum penalties for each count of mail fraud and for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud are 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or the greater of twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss, up to three years of supervised release after imprisonment and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
The maximum penalties for conspiracy to commit money laundering are 20 years in prison, a $500,000 fine or twice the value of the property involved in the transactions, up to three years of supervised release after imprisonment and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Presley Bo Tyler is a reporter for the Louisiana Deep South Connect Team for Gannett/USA Today. Find her on X @PresleyTyler02 and email at PTyler@Gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: What are romance scams? Fake “Romeo” convicted in Louisiana for scheme
Click Here For The Original Source.