Man guilty in Web dating scam; also ran Pharrell show scheme
PITTSBURGH — A Ghanaian-born man who the FBI says conned a South Korean company out of $375,000 by falsely claiming he could help them book a Pharrell concert has pleaded guilty to online dating scams that cost people nearly $1 million.
Twenty-nine-year-old Sigismond Segbefia pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft before a federal judge in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
The FBI says he conned women he met on Match.com and Christianmingle.com into wiring him more than $980,000 by posing as an Australian businessman and others.
In pleading guilty, he also acknowledged bilking Dosko Co., a South Korean steelmaker, by pretending to promote a show by the pop singer Pharrell.
Segbefia has agreed to be deported after he is sentenced in April.
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