A Catasauqua man was sentenced on Thursday for carrying out a scheme that defrauded victims of nearly $2 million through various internet scams, according to officials.

Chinedu Ekuma, 45, of Catasauqua was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison, two years of supervised release, a $10,000 fine, and $1,751,968 in restitution by United States District Judge John M. Gallagher, a news release said. 

The defendant was charged by information and pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in November of last year.

Catasauqua man pleads guilty to defrauding victims of $2 million

From about August 2020 through March 2023, Ekuma was part of a scheme to defraud victims and to obtain money and property of these victims by materially false pretenses, representations, and promises, according to offcials.

The victims were individuals and businesses that intended to make payments to businesses and individuals for personal and/or business reasons. Several of the victims were led to believe their money was being used for investment opportunities (which turned out to be nonexistent) and several more were victims of romance/friendship scams, according to the news release. 

Ekuma owned entities called Intelaris Solutions, LLC (“Intelaris Solutions”) and Verge Capital (“Verge Capital”), and opened several bank accounts in the name of these entities, the attorney’s office said. 

Prosecutors say Ekuma and others caused the fraud victims to send payments to the Intelaris Solutions and Verge Capital bank accounts, by falsely representing to the victims that those accounts were associated with the businesses and individuals who the victims intended to pay, when, in fact, the Intelaris Solutions and Verge Capital bank accounts were controlled by Ekuma, and Intelaris Solutions and Verge Capital had no legitimate relationship with any of the victims. After the fraud proceeds were received into the Intelaris Solutions and Verge Capital bank accounts, Ekuma transferred most of the fraud proceeds to other co-schemers and retained other amounts of the fraud proceeds for himself.

As part of the scheme, the defendant and co-schemers created, or caused the creation of, fraudulent documentation that falsely represented that Intelaris Solutions and Verge Capital were entitled to payments from the victims.

In total, the scheme resulted in victims losing over $1.75 million and attempted to cause an additional approximately $650,000 in losses.