In October 2023, a US citizen committed suicide after he lost his life savings to a romance scam carried out by a network of fraudsters, including Nigerians living in the US and Nigeria.
The fraud victim was a retired American teacher who resided in the eastern district of Tennessee.
Court documents obtained by PREMIUM TIMES revealed that the American, identified simply as victim 1, was defrauded in a sextortion plot, resulting in the loss of over $80,000. A sum that made up his entire life-saving.
The plot occurred from February to October 2023, while the criminal group generally operated between February 2023 and February 2024.
Although the members of the criminal network operating in Nigeria have yet to be identified, the two other members residing in the US have been convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
The two, Chinagorom Onwumere and Stephen Anagor, were sentenced by the US District Court in Tennessee in December 2025 for their role in the international romance scam scheme.
The scheme also involved a Sudanese woman, Salma Abdalkareem, who received a sentence of four years and three months’ imprisonment.
Mr Onwumere and Mrs Abdalkareem had served as the group’s money mules, receiving payments from victims and sending them to Nigeria through a business account named Salmasam LLC.
The court papers showed that they were married and shared a residence in New Jersey, while Mr Onwumere resided in Washington.
The charges against the three co-conspirators were detailed in a thirty-eight-count superseding indictment.
The Sextortion Plot
The interaction between the retired teacher and the Nigerian fraudsters began as a romance scam.
Through a fake Google chat account, the victim was deceived into believing that he was in a romantic relationship with a popular female actress. The celebrity’s identity was not revealed in the document.
As the relationship grew, the scammer and the victim began exchanging intimate photos as a romantic gesture. The criminal network in Nigeria shared a doctored “nude photo” of the celebrity they were impersonating to the victim.
After this, their interaction grew into a sextortion.
A few weeks after sending the photos, the Nigerian fraudsters impersonated high-level FBI officials and the US Attorney General, claiming that the images had been leaked to the public and that the retired teacher was the prime suspect.
They threatened the victim with criminal actions and demanded a series of fines. First, they asked for a $1,500 “mandatory fee.”
Then, they intensified the pressure by threatening the victim with false prosecution, claiming that the Supreme Court had ordered him to pay tens of thousands of dollars to seal the case and shield it from public disclosure.
They made the victim believe that if he didn’t do what they wanted, he would have to testify in front of his family publicly and everyone else about the affair.
Due to the persistent harassment, the victim got two cashier’s cheques for $41,000 each, which were his life savings, and sent them to the network.
But the pressure continued, forcing the victim to send suicidal messages to them. The victim shot himself through the mouth in October 2023.
“Salma Abdalkareem, Chinagorom Onwumere, Stephen O Anagor, and other persons who are known and unknown to the Grand Jury did knowingly and intentionally, with the intent to harass and intimidate this person, and attempted to cause and would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress to a person, that is, Victim 1.
“As a result, on or about October 23, 2023, the victim died. Victim 1’s cause of death was suicide, and the manner of death was an intraoral gunshot wound of the head,” a part of the documents read.
Emails, chat messages with the victim
PREMIUM TIMES obtained a document containing the parties’ email and Google Chat correspondence.
In the chat, the victim was deceived into swearing an oath requiring them to provide mutual assistance.
“I promise to assist one another in anything, emotional and financial needs [sic]. Let this oath bind this love forever. Forever and forever till death do us part,” a part of the text read.
One of the emails, purported to have been sent by a top US official, reads: “The attorney’s $41,000 goes towards closing your case file. The $40,000 mandated by the Supreme Court seals all evidence, and whatever was against you will be null and void. This payment is very important unless you are prepared to appear in court with your entire family to defend yourself in front of the world.”
Another email threatening the victim for a late response read, “If you ever ignore a message from us for 10 hours, you’ll pay $1,000 per hour until you respond!!!.”
All the money paid by the victim was sent to Nigeria to Mr Onwumere and his wife, Mrs Abdalkareem.
The two also received and laundered checks from seven other victims of the scam. Altogether, the network defrauded eight Americans of nearly $400,000.
As a result, the court ordered the convicts to pay $388,500 in restitution to the victims.
The role of the money mule
The couple, Mr Onwumere and Mrs Abdalkareem, became a part of the criminal network through Mr Anagor.
Mr Anagor recruited the couple after meeting Mr Onwumere during a military training in South Carolina in June 2023.
The court documents revealed that Mrs Abdulkareem negotiated her cut from the money paid to her.
At her husband’s direction, Mrs Abdulkareem would withdraw her share from the funds sent to her and then send the rest to her co-conspirators in Nigeria.
They also jointly operated the bank accounts and Salmasam LLC, which was used to receive and launder the proceeds of the fraudulent activity.
Meanwhile, their Nigerian partners impersonated three other female celebrities to gain their victims’ trust.
According to the documents, although the money mules, particularly Mrs Abdalkareem, did not know the details of their Nigerian partners’ interactions with the victims, they knew the funds paid into their accounts were obtained through fraud.
The court documents also revealed that during the proceedings, Mrs Abdalkareem filed objections to the charges against her.
She argued that her role in the scheme was minor and sought a reduced sentence, but the court rejected this, finding she was fully aware of the scam, performed tasks, and communicated directly with one of the co-conspirators in Nigeria.
She also requested first-time offender leniency, but the court denied this because she personally caused substantial financial harm by depositing $86,500 of a victim’s life savings into accounts she controlled.
She also contested the total loss amount, claiming she should be responsible only for the money she personally handled, but the court ruled she was accountable for all foreseeable losses arising from the conspiracy.
Mrs Abdalkareem also pleaded guilty to three specific counts. That is, counts 2 (conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud) and 29 and 31 (aiding and abetting money laundering).
In its ruling, the court ordered that all money and property linked to the crimes be taken, including more than $13,000 from Mrs Abdalkareem’s bank account.
Upon release, Mr Onwumere and Mr Anagor will serve five years of supervised release, while Ms Abdulkareem will serve three years.
