A Nigerian national living in Austin has been sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison for masterminding what are called 'romance schemes' that ripped off millions of dollars from lonely women, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Federal prosecutors say Kingsley Otuya would meet women on line and claim to be romantically interested in them.
He would then convince them to 'invest' in some sort of bogus scheme, and when they deposited money into Otuya's account, so called 'catchers' would swoop in immediately and take it out.
Otuya had nine different fake passports and he used them to open multiple bank accounts int he Austin areas under phony names to cover his tracks.
One of the woman killed herself after realizing that she had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to Otuya's schemes.Prosecutors say Otuya will be deported back to Nigeria, once he completes his prison sentence.