Another Online Romance Scam Co-Conspirator Convicted In RI

PROVIDENCE, RI — Another member of a conspiracy that scammed seniors looking for love in Rhode Island and several other states out of over $3.2 million was convicted in federal court in Rhode Island Tuesday, the United States Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.

In the romance scams, perpetrators took advantage of unsuspecting senior citizens who believed they had formed genuine relationships with the scammers, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a previous news release.

Sadae Mills, 28, of Houston, TX, admitted to a federal judge that for around three months beginning in April 2018, she agreed to receive payments that she knew had been fraudulently obtained from women through internet and app-based romance scams, according to the office.

Mills admitted that in those three months, she received a total of $34,710 in fraud proceeds and deposited them into her bank account, the office said. She also admitted that she spent some of the funds and transferred other proceeds to other banks—as directed by co-conspirator Dominique Golden, 31, also from Houston—and withdrew some of the funds in cash before giving them to Golden.

Golden was convicted in Sept. 2022 after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, the office said. She was sentenced on Jan. 25 to 6.5 years in federal prison followed by three years of federal supervised release, and to pay $1,263,822.54 restitution to represent the romance scam proceeds she admitted to collecting and banking.

Co-conspirator Breauna Williams, 29, of Jacksonville, North Carolina is awaiting sentencing on April 18 after pleading guilty on Jan. 17 to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, the office said. Co-conspirators Wisdom Oghenekaro Onyobeno, 42, and Syretta Scherer, 41, of Atlanta, Georgia are awaiting trial set to begin May 1 in U.S. District Court in Providence.

Mills is scheduled to be sentenced on May 23, the office said. Her sentence will be determined by a federal district judge.