A Nigerian man’s wedding in the USA was canceled after he and his fiancée were arrested for a $3.1 million romance scam

The planned wedding ceremony between Darlington Akporugo, a Nigerian man, and Jasmin Sood, which was to occur on May 25 in Houston, USA, has been abruptly canceled following their arrests on fraud charges. The couple was detained in April under accusations of defrauding more than a dozen elderly Americans through online romantic scams.

The United States Department of Homeland Security has charged Akporugo, 46, and Sood, 35, with mail and wire fraud, resulting in the loss of $3.123 million from the victims. The alleged fraudulent activities spanned from 2015 to 2022. Investigators report that the pair used fictitious personas on social networking and internet dating platforms to target elderly victims, many of whom were widowed. They communicated through email, text messages, and phone calls to build trust with the victims.

Once trust was established, the victims were deceived into transferring large sums of money to various accounts controlled by Akporugo and Sood. In at least one instance, the fraudsters personally approached a victim in the Houston area, driving her to banks to facilitate money transfers and gaining control over her banking access devices.

The indictment also includes charges against Akporugo for aggravated identity theft and fraud related to an access device. The fraudulent scheme defrauded at least 13 victims of approximately $3,123,073. If convicted, both Akporugo and Sood could face up to 30 years in prison for each wire fraud and conspiracy count. Additionally, Akporugo could face an extra 10 years for access device fraud and a mandatory two years for aggravated identity theft.

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