Hyde Park man gets 32 months in federal prison for swindling senior ladies looking for love

A Hyde Park man who admitted he was part of a ring that swindled women between 50 and 80 by pretending to be Army officers overseas was sentenced yesterday to 32 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of $686,264, the US Attorney's office in Boston reports.

Macpherson Osemwegie, 32, had pleaded guilty last fall to one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud.

Osemwegie played a back-end role in the scheme to hook the women, the US Attorney's office reports:

Osemwegie’s role was to open bank accounts into which victim funds were transferred and quickly withdraw the funds. In less than three years, Osemwegie opened at least 16 bank accounts at seven banks using four different fraudulent passports. From June 2017 through February 2020, Osemwegie and his co-conspirators stole almost $690,000 from nearly 100 victims, many of whom were elderly and, in some instances, were deprived of their life savings.

An affidavit by an FBI agent in the case described the other ring members as patient men who would contact random older women across the country on social media and string them along, sometimes for several years, pretending to be Army officers overseas, before finally asking the women for money.