The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to arrest of a Nigerian woman who allegedly fled before beginning an eight-year federal prison sentence.
Emuobosan Emmanuella Hall, 46, a Nigerian citizen and U.S. permanent resident, was convicted for her role in a romance-fraud scheme targeting mostly older women, according to court records.
Hall was sentenced to 96 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Jane Milazzo in January 2026 and ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons by March 25.
Prosecutors said she failed to report as directed. GPS data from her monitoring device showed her last known location as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on March 24, 2026, where the device stopped transmitting.
Investigators said Hall had told her probation officer she was scheduled to fly to Minnesota to begin serving her sentence, but airline records showed she never boarded the flight.
A federal grand jury indicted her on Oct. 23, 2026, for failure to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons, and a warrant has been issued for her arrest.
Court documents said Hall had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud victims through online romance scams. Members of the syndicate allegedly posed as generals, philanthropists and entrepreneurs, built romantic relationships with victims online and persuaded them to send money under false pretenses.
Prosecutors said Hall and her co-defendant, Kenneth Akpieyi, used Le Beau Monde LLC to process victims’ funds. Hall admitted responsibility for $851,207 in losses, while Akpieyi was held responsible for more than $3.5 million and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
If convicted of the new charge, Hall faces up to 10 additional years in prison, to run consecutively to her existing sentence.
Romance fraud has become a growing focus for U.S. federal investigators, with the FBI warning that such schemes often target older Americans and result in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual losses.