Uchenna Christian Nlemchi, a Nigerian man has been sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay $524,000 in restitution, alongside a money judgment of $868,295 for his involvement in a hybrid romance scam and business email compromise scheme.
Nlemchi was extradited from Hungary to the United States last year. In the federal system, parole is not an option.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Alexander M.M. Uballez and Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, on Thursday, June 6, 2024.
According to court documents, the fraudulent scheme began in July 2015 when a co-conspirator, using the alias “Sean Bartlett,” initiated a romance scam with a 56-year-old widow in New Mexico.
At that time, Nlemchi was in the United States on a student visa attending Texas Southern University. He was arrested in Houston, Texas, in 2017 and placed under electronic monitoring in the third-party custody of his wife, with instructions to surrender his passport.
However, Nlemchi escaped his monitoring system and fled to Mexico, then to Brazil, and eventually returned to his home country of Nigeria.
He remained an international fugitive for over five years until his arrest in Hungary in 2023.
In February 2024, Nlemchi pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
After serving his prison sentence, he will undergo three years of supervised release and face deportation proceedings.
The Albuquerque Division of the FBI conducted the investigation with assistance from the Albuquerque Police Department during the extradition process.
