Home US Scammer responds to evidence in court of sick cheating, leading to tragic death of mother who handed over $2 million

Scammer responds to evidence in court of sick cheating, leading to tragic death of mother who handed over $2 million

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Anthony Ibekie, 59, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November after carrying out numerous illegal schemes, including the online dating scam that Laura Kowal was embroiled in

A con man finally took action when he learned how the evidence was stacking up against him for his role in a foreign-based romance scam that tricked unsuspecting victims into handing over $3.5 million and allegedly led to the mysterious death of a woman.

Nigerian national and Illinois resident Anthony Ibekie, 59, was convicted on all 14 counts of bank fraud and forgery.

Prosecutors said he preyed on targets looking for love on dating sites before demanding they send him excessive amounts of money.

As the trial progressed, reality finally hit him hard when, according to one juror, he burst into tears.

“He cried a bit in the stands,” said a juror who remained anonymous CBS News about Ibekie’s behavior. “But it was more like the overwhelming amount of evidence they had against him.”

Ibekie was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while his co-conspirator Samuel Aniukwu, another Nigerian national living in Illinois, was sentenced to 10 years after choosing not to fight the charges against him and cooperating with investigators.

Recently, a third conspirator named Jennifer Gosha was sentenced to three years’ probation, with the first six months of house arrest.

Gosha, a former U.S. Post Office employee and Iraqi war veteran, was dating Ibekie and thought he was a Nigerian doctor.

Anthony Ibekie, 59, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November after carrying out numerous illegal schemes, including the online dating scam that Laura Kowal was embroiled in

Scammer responds to evidence in court of sick cheating leading

Laura Kowal (pictured), 57, mysteriously drowned in the Mississippi River in 2020 after being scammed out of $1.5 million. She sent the money to a man on Match.com, which turned out to be completely fake

Her lawyer, Patrick Boyle, said 52-year-old Gosha was manipulated by Ibekie into becoming a “money mule” for the criminal enterprise, and that she lived her entire life before that as “an honest and law-abiding citizen.”

Their most lucrative victim was a 57-year-old widow named Laura Kowal, who sent nearly $2 million to the scammers before being found dead in the Mississippi River in 2020. Her daughter, Kelly Gowe, is still trying to piece together what happened years ago. later.

Kowal sent this staggering amount of money while under the impression she was dating a man on Match.com named “Frank Borg.”

It would later turn out that ‘Frank Borg’ was a fake profile, created by a group of scammers from West Africa.

CBS reported that one of Kowal’s first payments to ‘Borg’ of $75,000 was received by Aniukwu, Ibekie and Gosha.

In August 2020, police told Gowe that her mother had committed suicide and her body had washed up near Canton, Missouri, nearly four hours away from her home in Galena, Illinois.

Before she was found, Gowe received a call from a federal agent informing her that her mother had been the victim of a scam. When she tried to contact her mother, she realized she was missing.

Gowe also found a terrifying note from Kowal, who seemed to foresee her own demise.

‘I have been living a double life for the past year. It has left me shattered and shattered. Yes, it’s about Frank, the man I met through online dating. I tried many times to stop this, but I knew I would end up dead,” Kowal wrote to her daughter in the poignant letter.

No formal ruling was ever made on Kowal’s manner of death, but her autopsy revealed that she died by drowning.

‘They are the scammers, they are the criminals behind those emails. It’s Frank Borg… this character. He killed my mother,” Gowe said.

Kelly Gowe (pictured with her mother) attended the sentencing hearing for Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu, the two Nigerian nationals who prosecutors said received the money her mother sent to 'Frank Borg'

Kelly Gowe (pictured with her mother) attended the sentencing hearing for Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu, the two Nigerian nationals who prosecutors said received the money her mother sent to ‘Frank Borg’

Borg's photos were from a Chilean doctor

E-mails sent by Borg were traced to Ghana

The scammers used these photos for the fake ‘Frank Borg’ profile. Investigators later realized that the emails from ‘Borg’ originated in Ghana

When a CBS news crew asked about those who had lost their life savings to the scammers operating on its dating platform, Match.com CEO Bernard Kim told the outlet, “Things happen in life. That's really difficult'

When a CBS news crew asked about those who had lost their life savings to the scammers operating on its dating platform, Match.com CEO Bernard Kim told the outlet, “Things happen in life. That’s really difficult’

“And everyone involved in this scam in any capacity, transferring money, making a phone call, hitting ‘enter’ and ‘send’ on an email, they are all responsible for my mother’s death.”

Emails shared with CBS revealed that within weeks of their 2018 virtual meeting, Kowal and Borg shared emails telling each other they were in love despite never having met in person, and he convinced her to send him money.

‘She had all those buckets full in her life, so did my mother, but there was one bucket that was missing and that was company. And that’s ultimately where we are today, and it’s because of that,” Gowe said.

Federal agents discovered that Borg’s photos belonged to a Chilean doctor and that his emails were traced to Ghana.

After the tragic story of Kowal’s death came to light, Match.com CEO Bernard Kim was criticized for his callous response.

When asked by a CBS news crew about those who had lost their life savings to the scammers operating on his dating platform, he told the outlet, “Things happen in life. That’s very difficult.’

Gowe made a victim impact statement during the sentencing hearings for both Ibekie and Aniukwu, where she shared stories about her late mother.

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