CAPE TOWN - They met their victims online. They built relationships, gained trust, and then came the requests for money, laptops, phones and other valuables.
Now, years after their arrest in South Africa, a group of Nigerian nationals accused of being part of a sophisticated international romance-fraud network will finally be extradited to the United States.
They will be handed over to US authorities on Friday.
READ | Six Nigerians to be extradited to US over alleged R100m romance scam
The men are wanted in Texas and New Jersey on charges including conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft.
At the centre of the case is an alleged romance-scam operation linked by US authorities to “Black Axe”, a Nigerian organised-crime group which was operating from Cape Town.
From online romance to financial ruin
According to the FBI website, one of the alleged schemes followed a familiar script.
The scammer would pose as a romantic partner who was supposedly travelling to Cape Town to work on a construction project.
Then, the emergency would arrive.
READ | SAPS warns: Insurance scams turning deadly 'for the love of money'
The victim might be told that the supposed love interest had been mugged and needed the victim to send phones, tablets or laptops to South Africa.
READ | SAPS warns: Insurance scams turning deadly ‘for the love of money’
In other cases, the victim was allegedly asked to provide money for repairs to a faulty crane at a construction site, legal fees following an accident, or foreign taxes needed to release a larger sum of money supposedly owed to the romantic partner.
What began as an online relationship could therefore become a pipeline for extracting money and valuable goods from victims.
The FBI has previously identified Enorense Izevbigie, also known as “Richy Izevbigie” and “Lord Samuel S Nujoma”, as the alleged leader of the Black Axe group. He was extradited to the US in 2024.
The suspects in South Africa
The latest extradition battle follows a 2021 arrest.
All were living in South Africa at the time of the alleged offences.
Their legal battle began in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, where the extradition enquiry produced key rulings in July 2023 and January 2024.
On 19 February 2024, the court concluded that the men could be extradited to the United States and ordered that they remain in custody while the Justice Minister considered whether they should be surrendered.
But the suspects challenged that decision.
Their argument before the High Court
The men argued that the offences contained in the US indictment did not correspond precisely with offences under South African law.
That distinction, they argued, should prevent their extradition.
In April 2026, the Western Cape High Court rejected the argument.
The court found that the evidence before it pointed to a large-scale international fraud scheme.
The appeal was therefore dismissed.