Men arrested in money-laundering romance swindle

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – At least 10 men in multiple states have been charged in a Nigerian romance money laundering scheme that swindled victims out of more than $1.5 million.
The Tulsa World reports that U.S. Attorney Trent Shores announced Wednesday during a news conference in Tulsa that many of the victims targeted were seniors.
Shores says a federal indictment was unsealed and seven suspects were arrested by FBI agents. Five were arrested in Norman, Oklahoma; one in Brooklyn, New York; and one in Long Beach, California.
Three other suspects remain at-large in what has been labeled as a conspiracy. The victims included an Oklahoma resident.
Since 2017, the indictment alleges that the suspects hid the operation’s profits by shifting money between several bank accounts that were opened using fake identification papers.