A Nigerian woman convicted in New Orleans for a romance scam targeting older adults is sought by the FBI after failing to report to jail for her prison sentence.
Emuobosan Emanuella Hall, 45, of Atlanta, Georgia, was charged in April 2024 by a New Orleans grand jury in connection with a romance scam mostly targeting older women.
Hall pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Hall was released on bond after she was sentenced to 96 months in jail by U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo in January.
According to Hall’s ankle monitor, her last known location was the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on March 24. Her ankle monitor stopped working after she reported to her probation officer that she was boarding a flight to Minnesota, where she was supposed to report for her sentence.
The FBI said Hall’s phone shows she may have traveled to Dulles Airport outside of Washington, D.C.
About the scheme:
Hall pleaded guilty to defrauding older women in a romance scheme with a co-defendant, Kenneth G. Akpieyi, of Marietta, Georgia.
According to evidence presented at trial and court documents, members of this conspiracy falsely represented themselves to be generals, philanthropists, or entrepreneurs who lived outside the United States.
They would use social media to gain the victim’s trust and then convince them to move their conversations to encrypted platforms.
Hall and Akpieyi would then foster romantic relationships and ask the victims to send money for charity, sick family members, and other fraudulent reasons, according to the FBI.
The two then used a company called Le Beau Monde LLC to transfer money from accounts to foreign banks.
According to the FBI, Hall admitted to $851,207 in losses to victims of this scheme, while Akpieyi was found to be responsible for losses exceeding $3.5 million.
Akpieyi was remanded into custody after trial, and he is currently serving his sentence in custody of the Bureau of Prisons.
Anyone with information on Hall’s whereabouts is asked to call the FBI tipline at 1-800-225-5324.
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