US Man Sentenced to Five Years for $3.5 Million Romance Scam

A man who posed as a charming suitor across several dating sites has been sentenced to five years in federal prison after defrauding eight victims over more than fifteen years.

His name was Giovanni. At least, that's what he told the women he met on Match, Zoosk, and Christian Café. Charming, attentive, always available — exactly the kind of profile that makes you believe you've finally found the right person.

For more than fifteen years, Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo patiently built that character. Eight women, at different points in their lives, believed in it. The relationships formed online, deepened, felt real — until money entered the picture. An emergency. A loan to be repaid soon. An opportunity too good to miss. The excuse changed; the goal never did.

One of his victims, a widow, ended up handing over far more than casual financial support: her house and her entire life savings, built up over a lifetime, disappeared into the scheme. Across all his victims, the total losses topped $3.5 million.

The investigation took years to come together — Nwadialo was indicted in December 2023 on fourteen counts of wire fraud. In federal court in Washington State, U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright didn't mince words at sentencing, calling the crime devastating and saying it was "not an exaggeration to say it ruined lives." He was sentenced to five years in federal prison.

Fifteen years. That's how long it took for this case to finally come to light — a number that, on its own, says a lot about how hard this kind of scam is to catch while it's only touching one victim at a time.