ST. LOUIS – A Texas man pleaded guilty Monday to participating in a romance scam that bilked a Missouri woman out of $1.2 million, federal prosecutors said.
Rotimi Oladimeji, 37, pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.
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As part of his plea, Oladimeji admitted that he and others persuaded a St. Louis woman to send money to a man she was communicating with online who claimed to be a Belgian national living in St. Louis.
The scammers claimed the man needed money because he was not being allowed to leave the United Arab Emirates, where he had gone for a business deal.
The victim sent or attempted to send $931,000 to her scammers, prosecutors said. She also sent about $314,000 to two men in Texas who were given the funds in exchange for a cut of the money, according to the plea.
Homeland Security agents who stopped Oladimeji in Atlanta in February 2021 found text messages between him and the victim on his phones.
Oladimeji is scheduled to be sentenced in March 23.
One co-defendant, Olumide Akrinmade, 37, of Richardson, Texas, has pleaded not guilty to charges in the case. The other man, Adewale Adesanya, was sentenced in September to four years in prison for various fraud schemes.