A Brooklyn Park man has admitted to perpetrating a nationwide romance fraud scheme for more than four years and pulling in more than $2.2 million.
Dodzi K. Kordorwu, 37, pleaded guilty this week to mail fraud in U.S. District Court in St. Paul in connection with the online ruse that targeted dozens of primarily older people.
Federal sentencing guidelines call for Kordorwu to receive a prison term ranging from 5 1⁄4 to 6 1⁄2 years, the plea agreement read. However, federal judges have discretion when sentencing defendants and are not bound by the guidelines. Sentencing is not yet scheduled.
The plea deal also calls for Kordorwu to make full restitution to his victims.
The FBI says about 24,000 victims in the United States reported losing about $1 billion to romance scams in 2021.
Researchers say romance scammers prey specifically on seniors, some capitalizing on the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic to find lonely victims.
According to court documents:
Kordorwu and others used false personas, such as a U.S. diplomat or military official, and found their victims on social media apps.
An actual U.S. Army lieutenant general, William Garrett, is a common false persona used in facilitating this scheme, according to prosecutors.
At times, the co-conspirators would introduce their victims to an intermediary who would corroborate the false persona's story. The victims eventually were directed to send large sums of money by mail or other means to a specified name and address.
From May 2018 to June 2022, Kordorwu received more than 90 packages containing $2.23 million throughout the scheme. He kept some of the money for himself and sent the remainder to co-conspirators.
Last month, a federal judge sentenced Solomon E. Wilfred, 43, of Coon Rapids, to three years in prison for his part in the scam. Wilfred was ordered to pay $1.35 million in restitution to his victims and serve three more years of supervised release once he's finished the prison term.
