A Nigerian man living in Grove Hall who pretended to be a dashing American soldier so he could worm his way into the hearts of lonely women online and swindle them now faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, the US Attorney's office reports.

Mike Oziegbe Amiegbe, 42, even managed to convince a 70-year-old woman in San Antonio, Texas whom he had already scammed to fly to Brussels in pursuit of a box containing $24 million he had found while allegedly serving in special forces in Syria - which somehow never showed up even as she handed over still more money to an accomplice to "help" him retrieve it.

Amiegbe is scheduled for sentencing on May 23 sentencing in Boston federal court, the US Attorney's office says. Separately, a Ghanaian man living in Randolph, who allegedly worked with Amiegbe, still awaits trial on similar charges, although he pretended to be a worker on an offshore oil rig injured in an explosion, rather than a GI.

Between 2017 and 2020, the feds say, Amiegbe managed to convince several women online that he was in the US military overseas, that he was interested in a serious relationship with him and that, once they were hooked, they should send him money, which they did, at least $550,000. In an affidavit, a Homeland Security investigator details the case of that San Antonio woman, to whom he sent a Facebook friend request in November, 2017, under the name Gibson Banks:

"Banks' told Victim 1 that he was a soldier in the U.S. Army conducting special operations missions across the world and was currently working in Syria. Victim 1 also communicated with 'Banks" via text message and believed she was in a romantic relationship with "Banks," despite never meeting him in person or speaking to him on the telephone.

"Banks" told Victim 1 that he had come into millions of dollars while working in Iraq, and asked Victim 1 to send him money so that he could access his money overseas. "Banks" asked Victim 1 to travel to Belgium to retrieve a "consignment box" containing $24 million, and promised her part of the funds in return for her effort. In or about January 2018, Victim 1 traveled to Belgium, where she met an unknown man who went by the name "Daniel." Victim 1 brought $10,000 with her, which "Banks" had told her was needed to obtain the "consignment box." "Banks" told Victim 1 they needed more money to obtain the box, and she traveled to various Western Union locations around Antwerp and Brussels and used her credit cards to withdraw an additional approximately $26,000. Victim 1 gave the funds to "Daniel."

After Victim 1 returned to the United States, "Daniel" contacted her and said he needed another $92,000, which Victim 1 wired to "Daniel."

"Banks" continued to give Victim 1 excuses for needing more money, including that he purportedly needed funds to purchase special chemicals to remove ink from the currency, to give to authorities to get the funds out of the country, to cover costs of children who were sick, and to raise money to secure "Banks's" release from a Syrian prison.

For example, in or about the fall and winter of 2019, Victim 1 sent $70,000 in cashier's checks to "James," a friend of "Banks," who was purportedly raising money to secure "Banks's" release from prison. During that period, Victim 1 communicated with "James" approximately twice per week.

At one point in their investigation, Homeland Security agents wanted to get their hands on packages or envelopes Amiegbe might have received from his marks at his apartment in a two-family home on Supple Road at Normandy Street in Dorchester's Grove Hall section.

According to the affidavit, they contacted Capitol Waste Management, which has a contract for trash removal in Boston and which agreed to send an empty garbage truck on a special route on Jan. 6, 2020 down Supple Road, to make just one stop, outside Amiegbe's apartment:

I am aware that there are two apartments within the SUBJECT PREMISES. Investigators attempted to separate bags of trash that appeared to come from Apartment 2 from those that appeared to come from Apartment 1 by, for example, checking the address on envelopes and circulars in the bags. Once sorted, investigators did not examine the bags that appeared to have come from Apartment 2 and discarded them.

The hunch paid off:

[I]nvestigators found an empty United Parcel Service envelope dated January 2, 2020 from Victim 1 addressed to James Emmanuel of 63 Draper Street, Dorchester, Massachusetts. Based on my training and experience and my knowledge of this investigation, I believe this was the envelope in which Victim 1 sent the $13,800 cashier's check to the person Victim 1 believed was James Emmanuel. Additionally, as detailed below in Paragraph 36, I am aware that bank accounts opened at TD Bank and Citizens Bank using the Jacob Emmanuel and James Emmanuel identities list 63 Draper Street, Boston, Massachusetts as the customer's address.

Meanwhile, investigators discovered that one of the people who had access to one of Amiegbe's bank accounts was Kofi Osie, a Ghanaian living Randolph. Osie himself was indicted in February, 2021 on similar charges to Amiegbe, only he pretended to be a dashing offshore oil-rig worker - who would convince women to send him money, ostensibly to buy parts for his drilling platform, in a series of accounts that grew ever more fantastical - and which allegedly netted him even more money, a total of more than $1.7 million in all.

For example, in 2016, he allegedly managed to hook a Florida woman via eHarmony, under the name William Karlsen and in the guise of a manager on an oil rig overseas. He made arrangements, or so he wrote, to fly to Florida. But then he wrote with bad news: There had been an explosion on his oil rig and he was being detained in Dubai. Could the woman, he asked, wire his attorney $36,000 to obtain his release? She wired the money to the account of a man named James Anashe - and then wired two more payments, totaling $125,000 to the account. By this point, it might not surprise the reader to learn that Anashe was not a lawyer, in fact, did not exist at all because the name was merely an alias Osie had created, the indictment against him states.

Amiegbe and Osie are not the only West Africans living in the Boston area charged with scamming women online.

In March of last year, Amiegbe was indicted with four other men, from Hyde Park and Canton who were charged both with defrauding women between 50 and 80 online and making fraudulent pandemic unemployment insurance claims.

In August, a Nigerian man living in Milton was charged with running a scheme involving used cars to help Nigerians along the East Coast launder the money they were making swindling middle-aged and senior women.