Love hurts: Romance scam steals millions, sends Burlington County pair to prison

CAMDEN — A former Burlington County couple are an example of love gone wrong online.

Martins Inalegwu and his wife, Steincy Mathieu, recently received prison terms for their roles in a romance scam that duped lovelorn victims across the country out of approximately $4.5 million, court records show. The Maple Shade couple also faces orders to pay millions of dollars in restitution to more than 100 victims and for unpaid federal income taxes.

The scam's biggest sting: A Kentucky tourism board had $2.8 million embezzled by an employee who'd exhausted her own finances.

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Seven other victims lost $100,000 or more between April 2016 and May 2020.

Many of the victims were "vulnerable, older men and women who lived alone," according to a March 2023 indictment.

Indeed, people older than 60 reported more than 6,700 romance-fraud complaints last year, according to the FBI's 2023 Elder Fraud Report.

When combined with confidence schemes such as grandparents scams, the crimes against seniors last year caused estimated losses totaling $356.8 million.

How a romance fraud works

Scammers typically adopt a fake online identity, then quickly develop a close relationship to manipulate victims by email, online messages and phone calls.

"The criminals will seem genuine, caring, and believable," the FBI's report said.

"They gain trust and eventually will ask for money."

It noted that the scammers often claim to be stationed overseas for military or other assignments.

"This makes it easier to avoid meeting in person, and more plausible when they request money be sent overseas for a medical emergency or unexpected legal fee," the report said.

Inalegwu and Mathieu collected payments from victims across the country, including residents of Kansas, Idaho and Hawaii. The money came in wire transfers, checks and "cash or other funds which were deposited directly" into the couple's bank accounts, the U.S. Attorney's Offices said.

It says the couple kept some of the money but sent a large amount to conspirators in this country, Nigeria and Turkey.

Scammers struck up relationships on dating websites such as silversingles.com, christianmingle.com, and eHarmony.co, the indictment says. In one fake relationship, a scammer used the name "Keanu Reeves."

Inalegwu, 35, received an 80-month prison term on Aug. 23 for two counts of income tax evasion and operating an unlicensed money transferring business.

Mathieu, 28, received a 16-month prison term for tax evasion one day earlier.

Both were sentenced under plea agreements in Camden federal court.

Inalegwu was ordered to pay restitution of $4.5 million for victims and $1.7 million in unpaid federal income taxes.

Mathieu owes $1.2 million for unpaid taxes.

The couple and conspirators also scammed would-be renters by collecting application fees and security deposits for apartments they did not own, according to the U.S. Attorney's Offices.

"After Inalegwu, Mathieu and conspirators collected the money, the victims never heard from them again," it said.

More recent addresses for the pair were in Philadelphia for Inalegwu and Brooklyn for Mathieu, the federal prosecutor's office said.

The longest prison term related to the fraud went to a victim — Bridget Johnson of Cincinnati, who was duped on Match.com.

Johnson made three payments of about $26,000, then sent $2.8 million stolen from her employer, the Northern Kentucky Convention & Visitors Bureau, the indictment says.

It alleges Johnson, who was the board's finance director, mailed 29 checks drawn on the nonprofit's accounts to the couple's South Jersey home between May 2017 and September 2018.

Johnson, who was the tourism board's finance director, was sentenced to a 15-year-term in 2019. She has since been paroled, according to online records of Kentucky's prison system.

Her case is "a monumental example of what goes wrong any time someone sends funds to a person they’ve never met," according to Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders, who prosecuted Johnson for Kentucky's Kenton County.

"It's a scam ... It's always a scam," he said in a press release when Johnson admitted guilt in November 2019. "There’s no legitimate reason to send money to anyone you’ve never even met in person. It will always end bad!”

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Martins Inalegwu and Steincy Mathieu get prison for romance scam