A Nigerian prince from the ancient city of Benin, and his accomplice have been accused of bamboozling hundreds of job seekers out of thousands of dollars by promising them high-paying gigs in New York.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Osmond Eweka, 31, a prince from the Royal Family of Ogiesoba Eweka of the Great Benin Kingdom and his friend Kamel McKay, 27, pretended to run two consulting firms in Manhattan telling clients that if they paid a fee they would be placed at various jobs across New York City.
Prosecutors said some of the jobs Eweka and McKay promised their victims were for hotel housekeeping and front desk receptionists. The men used the popular job-seeking website Indeed.com to find their victims.
Eweka, 31, appeared in a Manhattan court on Thursday where he pleaded guiltyto charges of larceny and scheme to defraud.
Prosecutors said they would invite their victims to their office for an interview and then have them pay a fee, ranging between $300 and $700, the Post reports.
But in reality, there was no such job,’ she said at Eweka’s arraignment on Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
After collecting the money, the men would send the job seekers to different businesses, where they were turned away by employers who weren’t expecting them.
The victims then found that they could no longer get in contact with the alleged fraudsters or the consulting firm. According to authorities, Eweka and McKay duped 250 people. .
They ran the alleged scam from January to June 2018. Both men were indicted on charges of larceny and scheme to defraud. McKay was arraigned last week and released on $200,000 bail, theNew York Times reports.
In 2016, Prince Eweka married attorney Imade Igbinedion in an elaborate wedding ceremony in Nigeria.
