Sask. RCMP issues warrants for four suspects in online romance schemes

One man has been arrested and Canada-wide warrants have been issued for four other men in connection with online romance scams.

According to a media release Thursday from the RCMP, the five men were living in Regina at the time of the scams.

Kelvin Awani (RCMP/Submitted)

Jonah Eigbuluese (RCMP/Submitted)

The Mounties said they got a call in January 2018 from a man who said his name had been used without his knowledge or permission in a fraudulent online transaction. The subsequent investigation linked that fraud to others that had ripped off victims across Canada.

“Over the course of 18 months, (the RCMP’s Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit) used intelligence-based policing to conduct a thorough investigation, which involved a series of surveillance operations, numerous interviews and the acquisition of several judicial authorizations to investigate over 50 Canadian bank accounts,” the media release said.

That allowed the Mounties to identify the five suspects, whom police say have ties to an international criminal organization that runs online romance scams.

In a video posted to Facebook, Insp. Wayne Nichols said suspects defrauded seven women of $360,000 over a two-year span. The women told police they had been swindled out of $2 million over the course of the relationships.

Nichols said the men met their victims on game apps or dating websites and developed relationships with them. The suspects shared details about families and jobs, sent pictures and contacted the women multiple times per day.

Finally, the men asked for money to pay for such things as a work accident, an operation or the birthday of a child.

“The amount of work done by these scammers to keep up the lies and to be able to stay in constant communication, to convince the women they were victimizing they were in a true intimate relationship, was significant,” Nichols said in the video. “It made sense to believe this was a real relationship.”

Nichols said the women weren’t “naive or foolish. They were preyed upon.”

On Jan. 15, the RCMP arrested 28-year-old Austin Newton and charged him with fraudulently personating another person, fraud under $5,000, fraud over $5,000 and possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000.

The Mounties have issued warrants for the arrests of 24-year-old Kelvin Awani, 22-year-old Jonah Eigbuluese, 25-year-old Joshua Ometie and 27-year-old Clinton Newton.

Clinton Newton (RCMP/Submitted)

Joshua Ometie (RCMP/Submitted)

Anyone with information about the four men is asked to call the Saskatchewan RCMP at 306-310-7267, their local police service or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

More details about the schemes are available here.