Exclusive: Fugitive alleged romantic scammer found in Dubai

In mid -December, a 30 -year -old Nigerian named Jeremiah Adejoh on Friday published a video on Instagram of his day sailing on a motor yacht on the coast of Dubai.

“Life in 2024 … Incredible,” he wrote.

The supposed victim of Adejoh may feel different.

ADEJOH is sought in the United States for allegedly playing what is commonly known as a “romantic scam”, according to an accusation presented in February 2024, which has not been previously informed.

The accusation mentions multiple objectives of the alleged scam, but focuses on an “electronic sports athlete” without a name that was supposedly fraud of $ 1.3 million in the Bitcoin value.

Only a few weeks after prosecutors say it charged that the cryptocurrency, Adejoh, bought two properties in Dubai worth approximately $ 860,000 combined. The records of the Dubai land department show that he used a passport of the Nation of the Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis to make the purchases of 2020.

The records show that it still has one of the properties: an apartment of a room at the SLS Dubai Hotel & Residences of 75 floors in the dazzling Business Bay area.

According to the accusation of the United States, Adejoh created a profile in an appointment application and called himself “Mabel”. Chatting in the application like Mabel, he allegedly took the money from the “victim 1”, who lived in Orange County, California, and made a living playing electronic sports, which involves teams that compete with each other in online games.

Working with co-conspirators, including a Nigerian partner named Chekwube Odinaka Mefoh, Adejoh established “a fraudulent cryptocurrency trade application and a website using the name ‘Whalepool.tech’, according to prosecutors.

The two men allegedly convinced the victim 1 “to deposit bitcoin in cryptocurrency wallets that controlled or were controlled by other conspirators.” The other conspirators are unknown to prosecutors, according to the accusation. Prosecutors say that the victim was told that he would receive commission about those bitcoins.

Neither Mefoh nor Adejoh responded to requests for comments sent by email and WhatsApp.

Shortly after receiving CCRP questions, also sent on Instagram, Adejoh cleaned his social media accounts. However, journalists had saved screen layers of many of their publications, including their boat around Dubai.

The publications show Adejoh, who goes through the mango “Jerradpb” on Instagram, apparently living a luxury life. In a photo he is stroking a tiger in a zoo. Another show Adejoh sitting on a bmw motorcycle, and there is a couple of it with a yellow lamborghini urus.

“Lamborghini or Ferrari,” Adejoh asked in a position last August.

In another publication he clarified: “I love Porche too.”

The ECCCRP research and data team contributed to this story.