Woman Who Lied About Romance Scam Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison
I just got this from Tracey Berry who work for the Eastern District of Missouri. THis is the press release that was put out.
PRESS RELEASE
Woman Who Lied About Romance
Scam Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison
Thursday, February 16, 2023
Share
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Missouri
ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Sarah E, Pitlyk on Thursday sentenced a woman from
Ohio who lied to U.S. Postal Inspectors to conceal her involvement with romance
scammers to two years in prison.
On April 29, 2020, U.S. Postal Inspectors found $50,000 that had fallen from an Express
Mail package sent by Linda Matson, now 62, of Xenia, Ohio to a post office box being
used in a romance fraud scheme. They later found a second package containing the
same amount.
The inspectors reached out to Matson, who acknowledged that she had been scammed
by someone claiming to be a lieutenant general in the U.S. Army. On May 10, 2020,
three days after admitting she had been duped in that romance scam, Matson began
inducing her relatives to send her money on behalf of her fictitious military officer. In an
effort to conceal her continued involvement in the romance fraud scam and to expedite
the return of the seized funds, on May 18, 2020 she sent multiple text messages to a
postal inspector falsely claiming that she needed the money to buy posters and T-shirts
to help find her missing 18-year-old niece. Matson also sent links to news articles and
Facebook stories about a missing Ohio teenager to deceive the inspector into acting
quickly.
Believing Matson’s statements to be true, between June 1, 2020 and August 3, 2020
relatives gave Matson $590,000 that was to be used to help the fictitious military officer
obtain an imaginary portfolio containing cash and diamonds valued at $20,000,000.
Instead of providing the funds to the United States Customs Service as she promised,
Matson mailed the money to post office boxes controlled by the romance scammers.
Matson pleaded guilty in August to a charge of making false statements to a federal
agent and admitted she intended to use the money for reasons she was concealing from
the postal inspector. She also admitted lying to the inspector and the FBI.
In a related case, Bonmene Sibe and Ovuoke Frank Ofikoro pleaded guilty to conspiracy
to commit a mail fraud and wire fraud scheme that used the same false claims about
military officers to deceive women into mailing $844,070 to post office boxes in St.
Louis. Judge Pitlyk sentenced Sibe, 43, to five years and three months in prison in May
and Ofikoro, 43, to four years and two months in prison in June. Both men were also
ordered to repay their victims.
The U.S. Postal Inspection service and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Tracy Berry is prosecuting the case.
Updated February 16, 2023
