Brooklyn Park man gets 5 years in prison for romance scheme that raked in more than $2M

A Brooklyn Park man received more than five years in prison Tuesday for perpetrating with others a nationwide romance fraud scheme for four years and pulling in more than $2.1 million.

Dodzi K. Kordorwu, 38, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to a 5¼-year term after pleading guilty to the online ruse that targeted dozens of primarily older people.

Judge Eric Tostrud also ordered Kordorwu to be under court supervision for three years after his release and to make full restitution of the money he stole.

The FBI says about 24,000 victims in the United States reported losing about $1 billion to romance scams in 2021. Researchers say romance scammers prey specifically on seniors, some capitalizing on the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic to find lonely victims.

Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors argued in a court filing for Kordowu to be given a sentence of nearly seven years in prison.

While taking on the persona of “Dr. Carmen Williams” to interact with one victim, Kordowu “directly expressed his love [and] promised to never leave them,” the prosecution filing read.

Upon receiving a monetary shipment, Kordorwu followed up with “‘thank you so much my sweet and beautiful wife. I love you, and I will always love you,’” the filing continued. “The deeply personal connections forged by these overtures is what made the fraud scheme so potent.”

The defense proposed in writing to the court for a sentence of probation that Kordorwu had a limited role in the scam, the crime was nonviolent in nature and “Mr. Kordorwu is the sole person being held responsible for the offense.”

According to court documents:

Kordorwu and others used false personas, such as a U.S. diplomat or military official, and found their victims on social media apps.

An actual U.S. Army lieutenant general, William Garrett, is a common false persona used in facilitating this scheme, according to prosecutors.

At times, the co-conspirators would introduce their victims to an intermediary who would corroborate the false persona’s story. The victims eventually were directed to send large sums of money by mail or other means to a specified name and address.

From May 2018 to June 2022, Kordorwu received more than 90 packages containing more than $2.1 million throughout the scheme. He kept some of the money for himself and sent the remainder to co-conspirators.

In November, a federal judge sentenced Solomon E. Wilfred, 43, of Coon Rapids to three years in prison for his part in the scam. Wilfred was ordered to pay $1.35 million in restitution to his victims and serve three more years of supervised release once he’s finished the prison term.