Full investigative reports on the scammers behind the headlines.
Long-form dossiers on court-convicted fraudsters, publicly-exposed con artists and anonymous undercover reports — one case, one file, all the receipts.
Evidence first. Always.
Court-confirmed first
Convictions, indictments and SEC actions are cited with case numbers and links to primary sources.
Publicly-exposed scammers
Repeat offenders surfaced by reporters, regulators or community investigators — with the receipts.
Anonymous tips
Undercover and victim-submitted reports with photographic evidence, reviewed by our moderators.
17 open cases
Updated continuously. Every file reviewed against primary sources.
Kevin Olumide Adediran / Eric O. Williams
a.k.a. Olumide Adebiyi Adediran
FBI fugitive with a $10,000 reward — 24 years on the run
Nigerian-born fugitive wanted by the FBI for bank fraud, identification document fraud and credit card fraud in the Central District of Illinois. He fled before trial in December 2001; the FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
- Loss
- Undisclosed — fraudulent cheque and stolen-identity accounts
- Victims
- U.S. citizens whose personal information was used to open accounts
- Region
- United States (Illinois / South Florida ties) — Nigeria
- Filed
Ogolor Ronayerin Ogolor
Three years as the 'financial manager' of a romance scam ring
Court-convicted: Ogolor Ronayerin Ogolor was sentenced to three years in federal prison for acting as the financial manager of an elaborate romance scam ring that took nearly $900,000 from more than a dozen victims.
- Loss
- ~$900,000
- Victims
- 12+ victims
- Region
- Nigeria / United States
- Filed
Charles Uchenna Nwadavid
Two years for laundering $2M+ of romance proceeds in crypto
Court-convicted: Charles Uchenna Nwadavid was sentenced to two years in prison in the District of Massachusetts (case 24-cr-10022-LTS) for stealing more than $2 million from romance scam victims and laundering the proceeds through cryptocurrency.
- Loss
- $2M+ in victim losses
- Victims
- Multiple romance fraud victims
- Region
- Nigeria / United States
- Filed
Adetomiwa Seun Akindele
Nearly six years for a $1.6M scheme against one elderly woman
Court-convicted: Adetomiwa Seun Akindele pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering and was sentenced to nearly six years in prison over a $1.6 million romance scam that targeted a single elderly American woman.
- Loss
- ~$1.6 million
- Victims
- 1 elderly victim
- Region
- Nigeria / United States
- Filed
“Giovanni”
a.k.a. Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo
Five years for a $3.5 million dating-site romance scheme
Court-convicted: Franklin Ikechukwu Nwadialo was sentenced to five years in federal prison for a romance scam that took roughly $3.5 million from eight victims met on Match and Zoosk under the alias “Giovanni”.
- Loss
- ~$3.5 million
- Victims
- 8 identified victims
- Region
- Nigeria / United States
- Filed
The DOJ Romance Fraud Network
34 named defendants, four convictions, one playbook
An Operation Sunshine map of the Nigerian-linked romance fraud cases publicly documented by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI — four sentenced operators, two multi-defendant indictments in Texas and New York, extraditions from Nigeria and South Africa, and six names on FBI cyber wanted notices.
- Loss
- $15M+ across publicly documented cases
- Victims
- 130+ identified victims
- Region
- Nigeria / United States
- Filed
Max Sangtum Trading
a.k.a. Max Akem (a.k.a. Max Mayor, J.P.J. Akem, "Michael Bell")
Cameroonian advance-fee trader behind a decade of fake Forex, crypto & commodity sites
Long-running West African advance-fee scam operation trading under the banner "Max Sangtum Trading" and a rotating set of fake Forex, crypto and agricultural-commodity websites. Operator is publicly identified across WHOIS records and social profiles as Max Akem, now reported to be living in Douala, Cameroon.
- Loss
- Reported in the hundreds of millions of XAF (allegedly ~half a billion FCFA)
- Victims
- Multiple individual investors across romance, Forex and commodity scams (2014–present)
- Region
- Cameroon (operating); victims worldwide
- Filed
Robert Haley
After-school 'behavioral health' billing fraud
Cincinnati, Ohio operator charged in a multimillion-dollar Medicaid fraud involving an after-school behavioral-health program that billed for services never delivered to enrolled children.
- Loss
- Multimillion-dollar Medicaid losses (alleged)
- Victims
- Ohio Medicaid program & enrolled children's families
- Region
- United States (Ohio)
- Filed
Troy Murray
The elder-fraud 'sucker list' supplier
Hickory, North Carolina data broker who sold curated lead lists of elderly Americans to overseas lottery-and-sweepstakes scammers. Sentenced to 121 months in May 2026 for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
- Loss
- Tens of millions in downstream victim losses
- Victims
- Elderly Americans across all 50 states
- Region
- United States (North Carolina)
- Filed
MJ Capital Funding
a.k.a. Johanna M. Garcia & Pavel R. Hernandez
A $196M merchant-cash-advance Ponzi
Johanna M. Garcia and Pavel R. Hernandez ran MJ Capital Funding as a ~$196 million Ponzi scheme disguised as a merchant cash-advance business, targeting Latino investors across South Florida. Both are now serving federal prison sentences.
- Loss
- ~$196M across 16,000+ investors
- Victims
- Primarily Latino retail investors in Broward & Miami-Dade counties
- Region
- United States (South Florida)
- Filed
Daren Li
Sentenced to 20 years — then absconded
Chinese national and St. Kitts & Nevis citizen convicted of running a $73 million pig-butchering crypto investment scheme. Sentenced in absentia to 20 years after fleeing US supervision; currently a federal fugitive.
- Loss
- ~$73M wired to scheme-controlled accounts
- Victims
- Hundreds of US victims of romance-investment scams
- Region
- China / St. Kitts & Nevis / United States
- Filed
Malone Lam & the Crypto RICO Ring
a.k.a. Malone Lam
Lambos, nightclubs, and a federal racketeering indictment
Federal prosecutors charged Malone Lam and a dozen co-conspirators with running a RICO enterprise that drained crypto wallets via social-engineering and laundered proceeds through luxury cars, watches, and nightclubs in Miami and Los Angeles.
- Loss
- $230M+ from a single Washington, DC victim alone
- Victims
- Multiple high-net-worth crypto holders
- Region
- United States (Miami / Los Angeles)
- Filed
The Ghana–Ohio Romance Ring
A transnational dating-app scam, dismantled by the DOJ
A federal indictment named more than a dozen Ghanaian and Ohio-based co-conspirators in a long-running romance-fraud operation that targeted lonely Americans on dating apps. Multiple defendants have been sentenced; others await extradition.
- Loss
- Tens of millions across hundreds of US victims
- Victims
- Primarily older Americans on dating apps
- Region
- Ghana / United States (Ohio)
- Filed
Do Kwon
a.k.a. Kwon Do-hyung
Architect of the $40B Terra/Luna collapse
Co-founder of Terraform Labs whose algorithmic stablecoin UST de-pegged in May 2022, wiping out an estimated $40 billion in 72 hours. Convicted of fraud-related charges in Montenegro; extradited to the United States to face SDNY charges.
- Loss
- ~$40B in market value destroyed
- Victims
- Hundreds of thousands of retail crypto holders worldwide
- Region
- South Korea / Singapore / United States
- Filed
The Tinder Swindler
a.k.a. Shimon Hayut (legally Simon Leviev)
Romance-scam playbook, dating-app distribution
Israeli con artist who posed as the billionaire son of diamond magnate Lev Leviev to defraud women he met on Tinder out of an estimated $10 million. Convicted of fraud in Finland and Israel.
- Loss
- ~$10M across Europe
- Victims
- Dozens publicly identified; unknown total
- Region
- Europe / Israel
- Filed
Hushpuppi
a.k.a. Ramon Olorunwa Abbas
Instagram flexer turned BEC kingpin
Nigerian-born influencer who laundered hundreds of millions through business email compromise (BEC) scams while flexing private jets on Instagram. Sentenced to 11 years in US federal prison in November 2022.
- Loss
- $24M+ proven, ~$300M alleged
- Victims
- Banks, law firms, a US sports team, a Premier League club
- Region
- United Arab Emirates / United States
- Filed
Bernard Madoff
a.k.a. Bernard Lawrence Madoff
The $65 billion Ponzi king
Court-convicted operator of the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Sentenced to 150 years in federal prison after defrauding nearly 37,000 investors across 136 countries.
- Loss
- ~$65 billion (paper losses)
- Victims
- ~37,000 across 136 countries
- Region
- United States
- Filed
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