Three Nigerian men have become the first persons in the state’s history to be charged over an alleged ‘romance fraud’ scam. The trio was arrested by
The alleged offences are believed to have been committed between October 2019 and April this year. Sadu has been charged with the theft of €35,000 and two counts of money laundering. One of the money laundering charges relates to the alleged conversion of the stolen property into a €25,000 Rolex watch. The other two defendants have each been charged with three counts of money laundering.
The major probe — which also involves the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau — was launched in the summer after a complaint was made to cops by a Dublin woman. The woman alleges she spent cash on an investment project in the Middle East that never existed after receiving correspondence on the romance dating website Plenty of Fish last year from a man claiming to be a US oil rig worker.
