A 31-year-old Nigerian, Nzube Henry Ikeji, has been arrested for allegedly posing as Dubai’s Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to run an elaborate romance scam that defrauded at least two Romanian women of millions, with a second victim now emerging following an Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigative documentary.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) confirmed the arrest but noted no formal charges have been filed yet, as probes continue into the sophisticated network exposed by the report—Ikeji, who denies involvement and calls the probe reputation damage, allegedly contacted victims Laura and Ana via LinkedIn in late 2022, impersonating the prince tied to a fake humanitarian foundation.
Both women were lured with a 7,748 UAE dirham (€1,850) “VIP humanitarian membership permit,” followed by escalating demands to “activate” it—Ana paid €10,550 total before refusing a €42,000 “visit fee” that ended contact, while Laura handed over €12,550 initially and stayed trapped for two years, losing $2.5 million overall, including a London trip to meet a supposed “financial manager.”
Investigators uncovered identical tactics: matching email formats, scripted messages, forged membership cards, and false ties to the real Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives charity, with chats shifting from LinkedIn to Skype and WhatsApp to build emotional bonds and extract funds.
The OCCRP documentary triggered Ana’s disclosure days after airing, highlighting a coordinated fraud ring preying on trust in royal personas—Nigerian authorities are digging deeper into the operation’s scale amid Ikeji’s failed comment attempts.
