A United States court has sentenced the Chairman of Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State, Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo, to five years imprisonment for orchestrating an online romance scam that defrauded eight victims of about $3.5 million.

Nwadialo, 42, was arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at a Texas airport after arriving in the United States in 2024. He was later elected chairman of Ogbaru LGA on September 28, 2024.

The sentence was handed down on Monday by the U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Washington, following his conviction on multiple counts of wire fraud linked to a long-running romance fraud scheme.

According to a statement issued on June 23, 2026, by the United States Department of Justice and announced by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd, Nwadialo was indicted in December 2023 on 14 counts of wire fraud.

At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright described the crime as “devastating,” saying it ruined not only the victims’ finances but also caused emotional harm, including shame, depression and isolation from their families.

Floyd said Nwadialo targeted vulnerable individuals already dealing with grief, heartbreak and loneliness, deceiving them over many years to gain their trust and steal their money. He noted that the defendant even falsely claimed to operate a non-profit organisation supporting autistic children as part of the scheme.

Also commenting on the conviction, FBI Seattle Field Office Special Agent in Charge W. Mike Harrington said Nwadialo spent years exploiting people seeking relationships online and stealing their life savings. He added that although the fraud was largely carried out from overseas, the suspect was eventually arrested after travelling to the United States, where he was prosecuted and held accountable.