NEW ORLEANS, LA— A 40-year-old Nigerian citizen was sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison for his role in a romance fraud scheme that targeted American women and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, federal prosecutors said.
Daniel Chima Inweregbu, a citizen of Lagos, Nigeria, was sentenced to 33 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Nanette Jolivette Brown after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and identity-related offenses, as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering. In addition to the prison term, Inweregbu was ordered to serve three years of supervised release, pay a $100 special assessment, and pay $166,400 in restitution.
According to court records, the scheme involved a so-called “romance scam,” in which perpetrators pose as romantic partners to gain victims’ trust and then use that relationship to extract money or financial information. Prosecutors said Inweregbu and his co-conspirators used social media and online dating platforms to create fake profiles under the alias “Larry Pham,” described as a middle-aged, Canadian-born Vietnamese man, to attract female victims.
Between July 2017 and December 2018, the group targeted multiple American women, identified in court filings as Victims 1 through 4, ranging in age from their early 40s to late 50s. Once contact was established, the conspirators cultivated online relationships designed to emotionally attach the victims to the fictitious persona. After gaining their trust, the victims were asked to send money to domestic bank accounts controlled by the conspirators under various false pretenses.
Federal prosecutors said the scheme resulted in actual and intended losses exceeding $405,000. The proceeds were then laundered through a series of financial transactions intended to conceal the source and ownership of the funds.
Inweregbu was arrested after traveling from Nigeria to the United Kingdom and was extradited to the United States in July 2025 to face the charges. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Department of State. The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Ginsberg, chief of the Public Integrity Unit.
