Extradited from Malaysia: romance victims used as unwitting money mules
On 22 May 2025 Malaysia extradited Kenyan national John Muriuku Wamuigah to stand trial in the District of Connecticut on a wire fraud charge. Prosecutors alleged he and others executed a scheme using both business email compromise and romance scams, in which elderly victims of romance fraud served as unwitting money mules. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on 17 October 2025 and in March 2026 was sentenced to about 23 months in prison, time he had already served, with removal to Kenya to follow.
- Year
- 2026
- Where
- Kenya, Malaysia, United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Job and task scams, Romance scams, Business email compromise, Overpayment and fake cheque scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-10
The facts, as recorded
- Extradited from Malaysia on 22 May 2025 to the District of Connecticut.
- Charged with wire fraud.
- Prosecutors allege the scheme used both business email compromise and romance scams.
- The scheme is described as exploiting elderly victims through romance scams so they would act as unwitting money mules.
- Part of the Justice Department's transnational elder fraud enforcement work.
- Wamuigah was arrested in Malaysia in 2022 at the request of the United States; he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on 17 October 2025.
- He was sentenced in New Haven by US District Judge Janet C. Hall to about 23 months in prison, treated as time served (the sentence was reported on 29 March 2026), and is to be transferred to ICE custody and removed to Kenya.
- Court documents say his role was altering or forging invoices, contracts and wire instructions at a co-conspirator's direction; the scheme caused losses of about $12 million.
- The co-conspirator at whose direction he worked, named in the court documents as Osuji, was convicted by a jury on 1 May 2024 and sentenced to 96 months on 4 December 2024; Tolulope Bodunde received 24 months on 15 October 2024.
John Muriuku Wamuigah pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and has been sentenced. The sentence reflects the charge he pleaded to, which concerns the business email compromise conspiracy. The description below of romance victims used as unwitting money mules comes from prosecutors’ account of the scheme; the sources reviewed do not say that he personally carried out the romance scams. As of 10 October 2026 no later outcome was found in the sources reviewed.
Why this case matters
The word that matters in the DOJ’s description is “unwitting”.
The allegation is not simply that elderly people were defrauded. It is that they were recruited, through a romance, into moving other people’s stolen money. The proceeds of a business email compromise had to land somewhere and then move, and the people whose accounts did the moving thought they were helping a partner.
That makes them victims twice over. They lost money to the romance, and they exposed themselves to criminal liability by receiving and forwarding funds. Being a money mule is an offence in most jurisdictions regardless of what the person understood, which is why “I did not know” is a far weaker position than people expect.
Where this sits between schemes
This case is why the categories on this site have soft edges. It is a business email compromise, and a romance scam, and a mule-recruitment operation, and it is filed by the Justice Department under elder fraud. All four descriptions are accurate.
The organising insight is that stolen money needs a route, and recruiting the route is a distinct job inside the operation, sometimes done through a fake employer, sometimes through a relationship.
What it tells you about the scheme
There is a practical rule that covers both the job version and the romance version, and it does not require you to work out whether anyone is genuine:
Never receive money into your account on someone else’s behalf. Not for a partner whose account is frozen. Not for an employer processing payments. Not for a friend abroad. Not for a share of it. If someone needs your account to move money, the reason is that their own arrangements would not survive the transfer, and the person left holding the exposure is you.
Sources
- Justice Department Highlights Enforcement Efforts Protecting Older Americans from Transnational Fraud Schemes in Recognition of 2025 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. US Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The extradition, the charge, the district, and the description of romance victims used as unwitting mules.
- Kenyan in Sh1.5 billion scam to be deported from US. Nation (Kenya). Accessed 2026-10-10. Supports: The October 2025 guilty plea, the roughly 23-month sentence and judge, the arrest in Malaysia in 2022, his role forging invoices, the $12 million loss and the co-conspirators' sentences.