REGULATION | Nigerian National Faces 20-Year Imprisonment for Laundering Stolen Funds via Crypto

Charles Uchenna Nwadavid, a Nigerian national, has been charged in the United States for allegedly stealing more than $2.5 million from 6 victims through romance scams.

According to U.S. authorities, Nwadavid is accused of laundering the stolen money through cryptocurrency accounts he managed.

The 34-year-old resident of Abuja, Nigeria, was taken into custody on April 7 2025, after arriving at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on a flight from the United Kingdom.

A federal grand jury in Boston indicted him on charges of mail fraud and money laundering in January 2024. On April 8 2025, he appeared before a federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, where he was ordered to remain in custody pending further legal proceedings. He is expected to be transferred to Boston for arraignment at a later time.

According to a press release by the United States Attorney’s Office in the District of Massachusetts, the alleged scheme centered on ‘romance scams,’ where scammers use fake identities on dating and social media platforms to trick victims into developing online romantic connections.

“Once trust is established, the scammers manipulate victims into sending money or conducting financial transactions on their behalf, often under false pretenses – such as needing funds to access a fabricated multi-million dollar inheritance or to cover sudden medical emergencies.

Between 2016 and September 2019, Nwadavid allegedly participated in such scams and tricked victims into transferring money overseas.

To obscure his involvement, he reportedly used one of the victims – a Massachusetts woman identified as “Victim 1″ – as an intermediary.”

Authorities allege that Nwadavid persuaded Victim 1 to receive funds from five other victims across the United States. He instructed Victim 1 to convert both her own money and the funds from the other victims into cryptocurrency, which was then transferred to digital wallets he controlled on LocalBitcoins, a p2p crypto platform which shut down in 2023.

Additionally, it is claimed that Nwadavid accessed Victim 1’s accounts from outside the U.S., which is increasingly common in Nigeria, to help facilitate these transactions.

If convicted, Nwadavid could face up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 or double the amount of loss for the mail fraud charge, along with restitution and forfeiture.

The money laundering charge could result in a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $500,000 or twice the amount of laundered funds, in addition to restitution and forfeiture.

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