A former member of the U.S. Air Force is serving prison time for her involvement in a multimillion-dollar romance scam and a separate COVID-19 relief fraud scheme, some of which took place on base housing, according to federal prosecutors.
Nelly Idowu, a 41-year-old former airman, was sentenced to six years in prison in January for her role in a money laundering scheme that federal prosecutors say cost victims $6 million.
According to authorities, Idowu and three others created fake online dating profiles from 2017 to 2019 to befriend and romance victims. They targeted mostly widowed and divorced women over 65 years old, they would then tell them they urgently needed money.
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This happened while Idowu was living in Utah. Much of the stolen funds were then allegedly transferred to overseas accounts in China and Nigeria, according to court records.
But Idowu's crimes did not stop there.
A judge has also sentenced her to an additional year in prison for a COVID-19 relief fraud scheme.
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While living in base housing, Idowu filed two Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications and received a total of $40,000 in government funds that she was not entitled to.
She pleaded guilty to making false statements.
"It's probably easier getting the money out of the government for Covid than it was scamming these elderly people... All of them are just professional scammers and they saw an opportunity," Stallings added.
The WTKR News 3 Investigative Team has been exposing cases of public funds being misused and given to scammers, which the Government Accountability Office says has amounted to billions of dollars.
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"The government's got a lot of blame in this, letting this money go out the door as easy as it did," Stallings said. "They're clawing it back, but they're never going to be pennies on the dollar of what they get back."
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed that Idowu served as a water and fuel systems maintenance specialist in the Air Force from 2020 until her separation in 2023.
Idowu's lawyer told WTKR that she has no comment about the case.
