EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) - A Nigerian man is facing federal fraud charges after authorities say he posed as an Afghanistan-based U.S. soldier in order to dupe women into wiring him thousands of dollars.
An East St. Louis federal grand jury indicted Adagun Moshood Olalekan on four wire-fraud counts.
Investigators say he set up fake online profiles from September through last month, including one identifying him as “Lt. Col. Cadin Cayce Webb.” They say he used the photos of an actual soldier stationed in Afghanistan.
The indictment alleges he described himself as a widower with a daughter and wooed American women with “romantic emails and instant messages” and “false promises of marriage” before getting them to wire money to Nigeria.
Online court records don’t show whether Olalekan has an attorney.
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