The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced that a Woodbridge man’s romance fraud scheme landed him a 21-month prison sentence.
The statement said that the man, 41-year-old Abdul Rasak Garuba, preyed mostly on elderly people and garnered roughly $2.9 million since his scheme began in 2016.
Court documents showed that Garuba had several “large wire transfers” from senior citizens across the U.S. who believed they were sending money to a romantic partner they met through online dating sites.
“In fact,” the statement read “the victims had been directed to send money to Garuba by individuals in Nigeria who were operating a ‘romance fraud’ scheme.”
Officials say that Garuba opened “a number of bank accounts at local bank branches in Virginia.” One of the victims called his bank and reported that the money sent to Garuba “was induced through fraud.”
Investigators determined that Garuba lied, telling his bank that he had business with the victims, which included car purchases that were documented. He failed to give records to the bank and had his bank account closed — he continued to receive “shipments of cash and wire transfers” from his victims even after the bank account was shuttered.
Garuba transferred a total of about 15% of the $2.9 million that he got from those victims.
Officials said that Garuba “was aware that much of this money was obtained through fraudulent means and that he was furthering the fraud.” He used the money to buy auctioned vehicles and ship them from the U.S. to Nigeria for fraudsters in the country.
The office said that the Department of Justice prioritizes fighting elder abuse and financial fraud that targets senior citizens.
“Elder abuse is a serious crime against some of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens, affecting at least 10 percent of older Americans every year,” the statement said.
