Man Pleads Guilty in Scam that Convinced Adults to Send Funds to Fake General, Feds Say – By Brendan Rascius (Miami Herald) / Jan 18, 2023
A Texas man and other unnamed individuals posing as a high-ranking military official online swindled over $1.6 million out of residents of nearly a dozen states, federal officials said.
Fola Alabi, a 52-year-old resident of Richmond, “created companies and opened bank accounts that were used to launder” the funds swindled from victims, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island.
Members of the conspiracy befriended unsuspecting older adults online, often claiming to be a military general stationed abroad, according to the news release.
They pretended to have a personal interest, and occasionally a romantic interest, in victims, before persuading them to send considerable sums of money to Alabi’s addresses in Texas, officials said.
