2 Nigerians Set To Face 10 Years In Prison After Impersonating American Pop Singer Bruno Mars.

Two alleged Nigerian fraudsters Chinwendu Azuonwu and his Counterpart Basil Amadi have been arrested for impersonating American pop singer Bruno Mars and defrauding people of their hard-earned money.

Chinwendu Azuonwu, who is a permanent resident of Houston, has been accused of impersonating Mars on Instagram and duping a 63-year-old Texas woman of $100,000 as she was led to believe she was dating the American pop star, Bruno Mars.

According to a report from KPRC-TV, Chinwendu was charged to court on Tuesday, Feb 9, with third-degree felony money laundering. He was further taken into custody this week.

According to the court documents obtained, Chinwendu’s co-conspirator Basil Amadi is also a Nigerian national. Who helped him in carrying out his dubious act.

According to the scammed victim, she told the police that in 2018 she created an Instagram account “in search of companionship.”

She then came in contact with Chinwendu, claiming to be Bruno Mars. She stated that during their conversations on Instagram and Google Hangouts, she “fell in love” with Chinwendu, whom she thought was Bruno Mars.

She continued that Bruno Mars’s impersonator told her that he planned to quit his tour to be with her.

She said In September 2018, “Mars” asked her to send him a $10,000 check to help cover his touring expenses, to which she agreed.

The woman deposited the check into an account at JPMorgan Chase into “Basil Chidiadi Amadi,” Chinedu’s culprit. She was later asked again to deposit another money in 2019, still at JPMorgan, but into a different account this time.

Investigators have traced the bank records to two JPMorgan Chase accounts, one to Chinedu Azuonwu and the other to Amadi.

An investigation revealed that Chinedu has been hiding through a driver’s license holder, but their pictures were found undercover.

Well, according to Harris County prosecutors, Chinedu Azuonwu acknowledged that he was the owner of one of the bank accounts in question but ended up denying ever knowing Amadi.

He insisted that he had no idea how $90,000 was deposited into his account. His counterpart Amadi also told investigators that he doesn’t know who Chinedu was, and he has no idea how $10,000 was paid into his account.

If Chinedu and Amadi are convicted, they will be facing between two and ten years in state prison.