U.S. District Court Judge Judge Eric Tostrud recently sentenced Dodzi Kordorwu, 38, of Brooklyn Park, New York, to over five years in prison for his scheme targeting mostly elderly people in a romance scam. In December 2023, Mr. Kordorwu pled guilty to mail fraud. The judge also ordered Mr. Kordorwu to pay back all the funds wrongfully obtained from the victims and sentenced him to three years of supervised release after his eventual release from prison.

In total, the nationwide romance scam is responsible for the theft of more than two million dollars from some 90 victims. Mr. Kordorwu kept the scheme alive from May 2018 to June 2022. During that time, he targeted mostly senior citizens and created false names. His attention to detail included building intimate personal relationships with his victims, and then patiently waiting to request money for an emergency after earning their trust.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger made a statement about the scam, saying that Mr. Kordorwu juggled numerous fake identities and used social media to contact them.

“The scheme relied on perpetrators impersonating a real or plausible but fictitious person, such as a senior U.S. diplomat or military official, that contacted the victims through online social media applications,” said Luger.

The scammer also engaged other persons to help him in his scheme and had them qualify his fake identity with numerous victims. Once time had passed and the victims trusted Mr. Kordorwu, he would create some kind of urgent need for money and have them send the funds to a particular name and address. The victims never met him in person.

Court documents state that “Kordorwu received over 250 victim packages” from victims.

“Kordorwu then helped disperse these fraud proceeds to others,” court documents read. “To do so, he created numerous dummy corporations and opened a variety of bank accounts to make the transactions appear less suspicious. He also interacted with known victims during the scheme to ensure the successful receipt of their money. Kordorwu kept some of the proceeds for his personal benefit and disbursed the rest to other perpetrators.”

Over a period of four years, Mr. Kordorwu obtained packages from 90 victims and stole $2,144,291.86 based on his fictional persona and romance. He also paid some of his cohorts, who helped him solidify his fake identity, from the proceeds of his thefts.

Romance scams are occurring in greater numbers, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reports that “The criminals who carry out romance scams are experts at what they do and will seem genuine, caring, and believable. Con artists are present on most dating and social media sites.”

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports that in 2023, it received 64,003 reports of romance scams in the United States. The FTC classifies romance scams under the larger category of imposter scams.

Meanwhile, the FBI reported that the cost of Americans being duped in romance scams in 2023 amounted to $1.3 billion. Furthermore, the FBI notes, this number is believed to be underreported, since victims suffer “shame and embarrassment” and might not come forward.

While announcing Mr. Kordorwu’s sentence, Judge Tostrud said that this fraud was especially heartless, considering many elderly people suffer from loneliness.

“The only word I have to describe the nature and circumstances of [Kordorwu’s] offense is ‘cruelty,” said the judge.

The FBI reports that the case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and a Digital Forensic Investigator with Hennepin County.