(Lisa Schick/CKOM News Staff)

By CKOM News Staff

Sask. RCMP issues warrants for four suspects in online romance schemes

Apr 16, 2020 | 5:18 PM

One man has been arrested and Canada-wide warrants have been issued for four other men in connection with online romance scams.

According to a media release Thursday from the RCMP, the five men were living in Regina at the time of the scams.

The Mounties said they got a call in January 2018 from a man who said his name had been used without his knowledge or permission in a fraudulent online transaction. The subsequent investigation linked that fraud to others that had ripped off victims across Canada.

“Over the course of 18 months, (the RCMP’s Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit) used intelligence-based policing to conduct a thorough investigation, which involved a series of surveillance operations, numerous interviews and the acquisition of several judicial authorizations to investigate over 50 Canadian bank accounts,” the media release said.

That allowed the Mounties to identify the five suspects, whom police say have ties to an international criminal organization that runs online romance scams.

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According to the RCMP, that organization has defrauded victims of a combined total of more than $2 million through online romance scams over the past two years.

On Jan. 15, the RCMP arrested 28-year-old Austin Newton and charged him with fraudulently personating another person, fraud under $5,000, fraud over $5,000 and possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000.

The Mounties have issued warrants for the arrests of 24-year-old Kelvin Awani, 22-year-old Jonah Eigbuluese, 25-year-old Joshua Ometie and 27-year-old Clinton Newton.

Anyone with information about the four men is asked to call the Saskatchewan RCMP at 306-310-7267, their local police service or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

More details about the schemes are available here.

Kelvin Awani (submitted photo/RCMP)

Jonah Eigbuluese (submitted photo/RCMP)

Clinton Newton. (submitted photo/RCMP)

Joshua Ometie. (submitted photo/RCMP)