BOSTON — A Lynn man pleaded guilty Tuesday to his involvement in a romance scam that defrauded two elderly women of more than $75,000.
Fortune Aikorogie, 33, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of making a false statement to a bank, five counts of money laundering and one count of visa and passport fraud.
His sentencing has been scheduled for Oct. 14. He faces more than 30 years in prison and combined fines of $1.75 million for his charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the scheme started on Sept. 28, 2016, when Aikorogie used a counterfeit Zimbabwean passport and U.S. visa bearing his photograph, but a false name, “Tinashi Chipo,” to open an account at a TD Bank bank in Dracut.
He had obtained the documents from a friend in Africa, who he sent his photograph to through text, prosecutors said.
Between Oct. 5 and Dec. 15, 2016, two women in Texas, a 71-year-old widow with advanced Parkinson’s disease and a 78-year-old retiree, wired a total of $75,500 into the “Chipo” account, prosecutors said.
Aikorogie did not know the women, who had wired the funds into his bank account at the request of fraudsters who had romanced them online, prosecutors said.
Aikorogie withdrew the funds from the Chipo account and sent it to men he did not know at the direction of his friend from Africa. A bank investigator became suspicious of the account activity and called the number on the bank card, prosecutors said.
During the call, Aikorogie pretended to be Chipo and claimed the money was for his uncle’s construction business, prosecutors said.
When the investigator told “Chipo’ that the bank was going to close his account and to visit a branch, Aikorogie went to a TD Bank in Lawrence, where local police confiscated the counterfeit documents, prosecutors said.