At least 10 men charged in more than $1.5M romance scam

At least 10 men in multiple states have been charged in a Nigerian romance money laundering scheme that swindled victims out of more than $1.5 million.

The Tulsa World reports that U.S. Attorney Trent Shores announced during a news conference that many of the victims targeted were seniors.

Shores says a federal indictment was unsealed and seven suspects were arrested by FBI agents. Five were arrested in Norman, Oklahoma; one in Brooklyn, New York; and one in Long Beach, California.

Three other suspects remain at-large in what has been labeled as a conspiracy. Since 2017, the indictment alleges that the suspects hid the operation’s profits by shifting money between several bank accounts that were opened using fake identification papers.