Three Chicago area residents are involved in moving more than $3.5 million to a foreign-based company romance scam network have been condemned in recent weeks, including a former US Postal Service employee who told CBS News she regretted being sucked into the “stupid scheme” by her then-boyfriend.
Jennifer Gosha, a former U.S. Post Office employee and Iraqi war veteran, was sentenced to three years’ probation, with the first six months of house arrest with restricted movement, for her involvement in the Chicago fraud case.
One of the victims linked to the scam facilitated by the three defendants was 57 years old Laura Kowal. For over a year, CBS News investigated the disappearance and death van Kowal, a widow and retired health care executive from Galena, Illinois.
Kowal became involved in a romance scam with a man she met via Match.com who called himself ‘Frank Borg’. What started as an online and telephone romance turned into increasingly desperate requests for money. At first, Kowal sent money voluntarily. It later emerged that she had been coerced. Over the course of nearly two years, Kowal sent nearly $2 million to “Frank,” her financial records showed.
According to law enforcement, “Frank” was not a real person, but a group of con artists from West Africa. The scammers used stolen photos to create the fraudulent profile.
By the end of their correspondence, “Frank” had stripped Laura of all her savings, and the scammers began instructing Kowal on how to set up fake companies and bank accounts to transfer money.
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The case typified an increasingly common aspect of these online romance scams: the use of so-called money mules to conceal and launder financial transactions. The CBS News investigation found that one of Kowal’s first payments of $75,000, made at the request of “Frank,” was actually received by the three people living in the Chicago suburbs, including Gosha, according to law enforcement records .
The other two conspirators, both Nigerian nationals, Samuel Aniukwu and Anthony Ibekie, were convicted in November. The criminal complaints against the three say undercover agents made secret recordings that revealed their involvement in romance fraud and a series of other schemes. Investigators claim the trio’s scam resulted in a loss of at least $750,000 to the victims.
Aniukwu pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money laundering in July 2023 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of his plea deal. He received a prison sentence of 10 years.
Ibekie pleaded not guilty to the fourteen charges against him, including fraud and forgery. He was tried last September and was found guilty on all fourteen counts. Ibekie was sentenced to twenty years in prison.
CBS News spoke with a juror in Ibekie’s trial who told us the most moving aspect of the case against Ibekie was the victim impact statements. Four witnesses testified about the pain and loss they suffered from Ibekie’s scam, including a retired dentist in his 70s who was suffering from early dementia.
“He cried a little in the stands,” the juror, who wished to remain anonymous, said of Ibekie. “But it was more like the overwhelming amount of evidence they had against him.”
Kelly Gowe, the daughter of Laura Kowal, made a victim impact statement at the sentencing of both Ibekie and Aniukwu, in which she shared words about her late mother. In an interview with CBS News last year, she told us she harbors “so much anger” toward the criminals who led her mother to her death.
“I look at my life now and my mother misses all of that,” Gowe said in an interview last year. “They took so much from me. They took everything from her. My family will never get that time back.”
In an interview with CBS News last year, Gosha explained that she was dating Ibekie, who she believed was a Nigerian doctor. Gosha said she was also the victim of a romance scam and became a money mule herself.
In sentencing Gosha, Judge Steven Seeger recognized “the seriousness of the crime and the terrible harm caused to the victims,” but also recognized “the stark disparity in Ms. Gosha’s relative culpability,” said Patrick Boyle, Gosha’s attorney, in a statement to CBS. News.
“She had lived her entire life as an honest and law-abiding citizen until she met Anthony Ibekie,” Boyle said. “Anthony exploited her best qualities and manipulated her to achieve his selfish goals. Jennifer regrets helping Anthony in any way.”
When she was arrested on charges of conspiring with Ibekie, she said she felt like she was trapped. “If I’m someone who is ‘complicit’ in it, why am I left here without 50 cents?” Gosha told CBS News.