Nzube Henry Ikeji a Nigerian socialite has been exposed as internet scammer who has been impersonating high net worth individuals to dupe unsuspecting people online.
In sting investigative journalistic work, led by Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)’s Matt Sarnecki and Chikezie Omeje the fraudster was located in a luxury estate in Abuja.
The full story:
Nzube Henry Ikeji who has been parading as a “big time” businessman and “Investor” posed as the crown prince of Dubai to deceive a lovestruck Romanian woman into a relationship and defraud her of millions of dollars using the name of Sheikh Hamdan Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Investigations carried out by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed that Mr Ikeji, who rubs shoulders with Nigeria’s high and mighty, including real estate mogul Obi Cubana and Grammy-nominated artiste Davido, was running a syndicate that targeted desperate love-seeking women overseas.
Romania-based Ms Laura, who sought to be identified only by her first name due to embarrassment over falling for a romance scam, said she was contacted on LinkedIn by the supposed crown prince of Dubai three years ago.
At the time, the so-called prince sought her advice on the most resourceful Romanian humanitarian foundations that needed investment and a financial boost. The professional relationship soon gave way to a personal one, and after years of chatting, it became a full-blown romantic relationship.
Mr Ikeji, still posing as the Dubai crown prince, subsequently asked Ms Laura to meet his financial manager, Matthew Cros, in London to discuss how to obtain funding and open a Barclays account for her, a request she obliged.
Ms Laura travelled to London to meet the financial manager, a Nigerian who claimed to handle the finances of the Emirati royals. She met the man on multiple occasions, and unbeknownst to him, she brought her friend, who secretly took pictures of the meeting.
British police would later identify Mr Cros as a fake name for Martins Abhulimhen, a popular Nigerian socialite and philanthropist who previously ran an NGO, the Jose Foundation, and had been pictured with Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
It is unclear whether Mr Abhulimhen was a Muslim, given that he wore a taqiyah, a cap or head covering worn by Muslim men, when he met the Romanian lady, or whether it was part of the disguise to maintain his cover as a member of the Emirati crown prince’s staff.
Ms Laura was subsequently given login details for an online account, including username and password. She saw the deposit of approximately £202 million in her name. Ms Laura had no inkling that it was a doctored account with no actual funds. To make withdrawals, she was asked to deposit £7,000 to access the supposed crown prince’s deposit.
The money seemed like small potatoes compared to the previous hundreds of thousands of dollars she had already wired to the so-called prince since they began talking. So, she paid. The more she paid, the more she was billed before withdrawing the £202 million. Ms Laura believed she could access the funds if she continued to make additional payments, which had now reached about £2.5 million, to access the hundreds of millions of pounds.
Back in Nigeria, Mr Ikeji was having a bitter fight with his co-conspirators over how to share Ms Laura’s money. The Nigerian man had grown even greedier, investigations surmised. The fight became even more nasty after someone named James Patrick Normoyle, who claimed to be a financial adviser, reached out to Ms Laura.
He advised her to stop sending money to any “person or group” in the hope of marriage. The person further informed her that the “pre-marital visitation acknowledgement form” that she received from the crown prince “is also a fraud”.
“He defrauded you of more than 3 million euros,” the adviser explicitly told Ms Laura in an email.
A new message from Mr Cros (Mr Abhulimhen), whom she had earlier met in London, heightened her suspicions.
Mr Cros (Mr Abhulimhen) told Ms Laura that she was under the influence of an African black magic spell cast by the man impersonating the Emirati crown prince.
“African magic juju and voodoo he has used on you to make you believe he was real prince to marry you,” Mr Cros wrote to her via an encrypted messaging app.
Ms Laura enquired about her multimillion-dollar account in London, whether it was real.
“It’s a lie from the pit of hell,” the financial manager said, exposing the antics of the Yahoo Boy.
Ms Laura sought clarification from the supposed prince, confronting him with the new information. But the fake prince dismissed her concerns, claiming that his financial adviser only wanted to destroy their relationship.
“Matthew has targeted planned (sic) against my relationship with you,” read the chat from the fake prince that Ms Laura had saved as Sheikh Hamdan.
At this point, the Romanian woman realised she was being scammed and begged for a refund.
“How can you be like this, a person with no soul,” Ms Laura wrote to the impersonator.
She sought help from the fake prince’s co-conspirators, Messrs Normoyle and Cros, the same people who exposed the scam. She pleaded for more information on the impersonator.
Feeling betrayed by Mr Ikeji’s greed in sharing the proceeds of fraud, the co-conspirator snitched and told Ms Laura that the fake prince was Nzube Henry Ikeji.
The co-conspirator further shared videos of Mr Henry’s new house, crucial information that helped journalists track him down to his sprawling mansion in an estate in Abuja.