Charles Uchenna Nwadavid, the founder of Nec Bullion Construction firm has been jailed by a federal court in Boston, United States, over $2.5 million scam
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Boston Division, announced the conviction on Thursday.
Mr. Nwadavid, 35, defrauded victims—residents of Massachusetts—of over “$2.5 million” and transferred the stolen funds into cryptocurrency accounts overseas.
A statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts confirmed that the Abuja-based businessman pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of “mail fraud, aiding and abetting money laundering, and money laundering,” leading U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin to convict him and schedule sentencing for “September 23, 2025.”
A federal jury in Boston had previously indicted Charles Uchenna Nwadavid, in “January 2024” on charges of mail fraud and money laundering. He was arrested in “April 2025” upon arrival on a flight from the United Kingdom to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
According to the charging document, the defendant ran romance scams by recruiting victims through “advertisements for online relationships on dating or social media platforms by creating fictitious profiles and then using them to gain victims’ trust through a purported romantic relationship.”
The court document stated, “Between in or about 2016 and September 2019, Nwadavid participated in romance scams that tricked victims into sending money abroad.
In an effort to conceal the ultimate recipient of the victims’ funds, a victim from Massachusetts was tricked into receiving funds from five other victims around the United States.
“The victim then passed the funds to Nwadavid through a series of cryptocurrency transactions. Nwadavid repeatedly accessed accounts in the victims’ names from overseas to transfer the victims’ funds to accounts he controlled at LocalBitcoins, an online cryptocurrency platform.”
A conviction for mail fraud carries a penalty of up to “20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the amount of the loss to the victim, restitution, and forfeiture.”
Similarly, a money laundering conviction carries a maximum sentence of “20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $500,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the laundering transactions, restitution, and forfeiture.”
In addition to the criminal sentence, the defendant also faces “deportation to Nigeria” upon completing his yet-to-be-declared prison term.