Fugitive Nigerian Scam Kingpin Nabbed at Boston Airport After 7 Years on the Run

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — A Lagos man who vanished from the United States seven years ago after federal agents raided his Rhode Island home was arrested this week as he tried to slip back into the country, ending a long chase in a multimillion-dollar fraud and money-laundering conspiracy that preyed on elderly Americans.
Adetunji Abudu, 34, of Lagos, Nigeria, was taken into custody at Boston’s Logan International Airport after arriving from Istanbul, Turkey. He appeared in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island on October 21 and was ordered detained pending trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island announced.

Abudu is the last remaining defendant in a six-person federal case built around a sophisticated network that allegedly drained millions from U.S. victims through romance scams, fake sweepstakes, phony rental listings, and sham online shipping deals. Prosecutors say the schemes were directed from Nigeria, with the illicit cash then cleaned through bank accounts and businesses in Rhode Island, Idaho, and other states before large sums were wired back to Nigeria. Conspirators also used the proceeds to buy vehicles that were shipped overseas.

The operation primarily targeted older Americans. Victims were lured into emotional relationships online, told they had won large prizes that required upfront fees, or convinced to send money for rentals and shipments that never existed. According to court records and earlier sentencing documents in the case, the conspiracy netted more than $1.7 million from dozens of victims across the country.

Abudu fled the United States for Nigeria in 2019 shortly after the FBI executed a court-authorized search of his residence in North Providence. An arrest warrant remained outstanding while five co-defendants — Dotun Olawale Alonge, Oluwaseyi Akintol (also referred to in some records as Akintola), Samson Ikotun, Olabode Shaba, and Oladipup Shodipu (also spelled Shodipo or Shodipupo in various filings) — pleaded guilty to money-laundering conspiracy.

They received sentences ranging from time served to 42 months in federal prison. Several face deportation after completing their terms.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. McAdams. The investigation was led by the FBI’s Boston Division, with assistance from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and police departments in Tallmadge, Ohio, and Moscow, Idaho.

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A federal indictment is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

The arrest closes a chapter that began with an FBI raid in Rhode Island and ended, years later, under the fluorescent lights of an airport arrivals hall.