A Georgia man was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for a fraud conspiracy that targeted four people through online romance and business schemes, including a 77-year-old woman in Western New York. Stephen Odiboh, 53, of Stone Mountain also was ordered to pay $196,500 in restitution.
U.S. District Judge Charles Siragusa imposed the sentence after Odiboh's conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York. Prosecutors put the combined actual and attempted loss at $356,500 from conduct between 2023 and March 2025.
Prosecutors said Odiboh contacted the 77-year-old woman on Facebook in 2023 while posing as a widower named “Oliver Wilson” who lived in Norway. Over roughly a year and a half, he built an online romantic relationship and told her he needed gift cards to remain online and keep talking. She sent about 30 gift cards worth $500 each, or approximately $15,000 in all.
Between January and July 2024, the woman also mailed eight checks totaling more than $162,000 to people and entities identified by “Wilson,” including two checks made out to Odiboh, prosecutors said. In December 2024, he claimed Norwegian customs authorities were holding him and demanded money for a $158,000 fine. She mailed two checks totaling that amount, but her bank identified the fraud and stopped payment before they could be cashed.
The conspiracy used other approaches as well. In April 2024, a co-conspirator posing as “Alex Alberto” asked a caterer for services. After the caterer requested an $800 deposit, the purported customer sent a $2,800 check and instructed the caterer to send the $2,000 difference to Odiboh through Zelle. The caterer recognized the attempted fraud and did not deposit the check, prosecutors said.
Another co-conspirator used an online dating site and the name “William Rivera” to gain a third person's trust in 2024. That person sent $2,000 to Odiboh through Cash App on Aug. 14, 2024, according to the federal account.
In March 2025, a co-conspirator posed as “Alec Jonas” on a dating site and led a fourth person to believe they were beginning a romantic relationship. He then claimed to need money to ship goods from Bahrain to Texas. The victim wired $17,525 to an account he controlled, prosecutors said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan McGuire prosecuted the case. The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated it.
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