A con-artist finally cracked in court as he heard the evidence mounted against him for his role in an overseas-based romance scam which saw unsuspecting victims part with $3.5 million andallegedlyled to one woman's mysterious death.
Nigerian national and Illinois resident Anthony Ibekie, 59, was convicted on all 14 counts of wire fraud and forgery.
Prosecutors said he catfished targets who were looking for love on dating sites before demanding they send him outrageous sums of money.
As the trial wore on, reality finally hit hard as he was seen breaking down in tears, according to a juror.
'He did cry on the stand a little,' a juror who remained anonymous told CBS News regarding Ibekie's demeanor. 'But it seemed more about the overwhelming amount of evidence they had against him.'
Ibekie has been sentenced to 20 years in prison while his co-conspiratorSamuel Aniukwu, another Nigerian national living in Illinois, was sentenced to 10 years after he opted not to fight the charges against him and cooperate with investigators.
Recently,a third conspirator named Jennifer Gosha was sentenced to three years probation with her first six months on house arrest.
Gosha, a former US post office employee and Iraqi war veteran, had been dating Ibekie and thought he was a Nigerian doctor.
Anthony Ibekie, 59, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November after running numerous illegal schemes, including the online dating scam that Laura Kowal was wrapped up in
Laura Kowal (pictured), 57, mysteriously drowned in the Mississippi River in 2020 after being scammed out of $1.5 million. She sent the money to a man on Match.com that turned out to be entirely fake
Her defense attorney, Patrick Boyle, said Gosha, 52, was manipulated by Ibekie into becoming a 'money mule' for the criminal enterprise, and that she lived her whole life prior to that point as 'an honest and law-abiding citizen.'
Their most lucrative victim was a 57-year-old widow named Laura Kowal, who sent nearly $2 million to the scammers before she was found dead in the Mississippi River in 2020.Her daughter, Kelly Gowe, is still trying to unravel what happened years later.
Kowal sent this staggering sum of money while under the impression she was in a relationship with a man on Match.com called 'Frank Borg.'
'Frank Borg' would later be revealed to be a fake profile created by a group of scammers based out of West Africa.
CBS reported that one of Kowal's initial payments to 'Borg' for $75,000 was received byAniukwu,Ibekie and Gosha.
In August 2020, police told Gowe her mother had committed suicide and that her body had washed up near Canton, Missouri, which is nearly four hours from where her home was in Galena, Illinois.
Before she was found, Gowe received a call from a federal agent notifying her that her mother had been a victim of a scam. When she tried to contact her mother, she realized she was missing.
Gowe also found a terrifying note from Kowal, who appeared to foresee her own demise.
'I've been living a double life this past year. It has left me broke and broken. Yes, it involves Frank, the man I met through online dating. I tried to stop this, many times, but I knew I would end up dead,' Kowal wrote her daughter in the haunting letter.
No formal ruling has ever been given for Kowal's manner of death, but her autopsy determined she died by drowning.
'It's the scammers, It's the criminals behind those emails. It's Frank Borg… this character. He killed my mom,' Gowe said.
Kelly Gowe (pictured with her mother) attended the sentencing hearing forIbekie andSamuel Aniukwu, the two Nigerian nationals who prosecutors said received the money her mother sent to 'Frank Borg'
The scammers used these photos for the phony 'Frank Borg' profile. Investigators later realized the emails sent by 'Borg' originated from Ghana
When asked by a CBS news crew about those who had lost their life savings to the scammers operating on his dating platform, Match.com CEO Bernard Kim told the outlet: 'Things happen in life. That's really difficult'
'And everyone that is involved in this scam in any capacity, that's moving the money, that's placing a phone call, that's hitting "enter" and "send" on an email — they're all responsible for my mom's death.'
Emails shared with CBS showed within weeks of virtually meeting in 2018, Kowal and Borg were sharing emails telling each other they were in love despite having never met in person and he convinced her to send him money.
'She had all these buckets full in her life, my mom did, but there was this one bucket that was missing and that was companionship. And that's ultimately where we're at now, is because of that,' Gowe said.
Federal agents discovered that Borg's photos belonged to a Chilean doctor and his emails were traced back to Ghana.
After the tragic story of Kowal's death came to light, Match.com CEOBernard Kim was slammed for what some thought was his callous response.
When asked by a CBS news crew about those who had lost their life savings to the scammers operating on his dating platform, he told the outlet: 'Things happen in life. That's really difficult.'
Gowe gave a victim impact statement at the sentencing hearings for bothIbekie and Aniukwu, where she shared stories about her late mother.