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Eseosa Obaseki, 36, of Linden, was trying to dodge justice when FBI agents grabbed him this week at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, authorities said.
Obaseki used a bogus persona to reach out to the Washington State victim in late winter/early spring of 2019, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said.
Their online exchanges continued for a couple of months before Obaseki “convinced [her] of his romantic interest” and “gained [her] trust,” she said.
Then he asked her for money, Honig said.
Obaseki told her the victim it was for “business expenses and shipping expenses for a package containing a ‘box of valuables’ that he said he intended to ship” to her, the U.S. attorney said.
He then created bogus invoices from a fake shipping company for various fictitious customs fees related to the package, she said.
The woman wired him $100,000, Honig said.
Obaseki “systematically drained” an account of the money over the next several weeks, she said.
In one instance, Honig said, he withdrew $12,370 -- in the form of cash, cashier’s checks, and bank fees – from an account at a branch in Elizabeth.
Obaseki then convinced the victim to wire him an additional $210,000 – and immediately began using it, the U.S. attorney said.
In one instance, she said, he withdrew $24,394 from a bank in Newark.
The victim never got the promised “box of valuables,” Honig said.
Bank inspectors got wise, however.
In a recorded call, Obaseki told an investigator who asked about the wire transfers that they came from someone he’s just began working with in a car-parts business, the U.S. attorney said.
A complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark charges Obaseki with engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from wire fraud.
Honig credited special agents of the FBI with the investigation leading to the arrest. Handling the case for the government are Assistant U.S. Attorneys Shawn Barnes and Jonathan Fayer of her Economic Crimes Unit in Newark.
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