BY KERRY TOMLINSON, AMPYX NEWS

Romance scammers swindled an Atlanta woman out of more than half a million dollars in an intricate scheme that lasted months.

Most romance scammers get away with their victim's money. But in this case, detectives tracked down members of the crime ring and made arrests.

Will they go to court? Here’s an inside look at the crime and court case.

Warning: discussion of self-harm.

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“MIss You”

His voice once stirred Elizabeth's heart.

"I wish I was with you right now. I just miss you," the man says in a voice mail on her phone. "I was actually calling to check on you to know how you're doing."

"He was so kind when he called and when he sent emails," Elizabeth explained in an interview in Decatur, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. "He would always be there for me and never worry."

This same voice almost led her to end her life.

"It was really painful," Elizabeth said with tears in her eyes. "And I've lost all of my money."

"A Safe Place"

It started in 2019. Elizabeth, not her real name, met a match on Bumble, a dating app with marketing slogans that include, "A safe place to let the real you shine."

He was Michael Lawrence, an oil and gas company CEO from the UK. She lived in the Atlanta area. He was in Atlanta for business.

"He talked about his wife who died of ovarian cancer. And so, my heart just went out to him," she said.

He traveled for work, sending her messages and pictures between conference sessions in Washington, D.C., on a plane, in Bangladesh for a work project.

Elizabeth had just retired and was traveling as well, so meeting in person wasn't possible just yet.

He called her almost every night for long conversations about life, work, and family, speaking in what he called his "sexy Italian accent."

"We spoke on the phone for hours, talking about backgrounds, about his children. It was a very intimate portrait of his life that he gave me. And I bought into it, very much so," Elizabeth said.

"Quite beautiful"

Soon, he was falling in love, sending daily messages that seemed to come from the heart.

"Sweetheart, I promise you a lifetime of happiness and love. Come dance on the moon with me," read one.

He sent pictures that matched everything he described in his conversations.

"If he said he was on a flight, it would be a picture of him sitting in an airplane. In Alaska, supposedly, it shows him on board a rig and a boat. When he said he was in Bangladesh, there were pictures of what looked like, in the background, a government building where he said he was meeting with government officials," Elizabeth recalled.

"And they had hard hats on that said the name of the Bangladesh company," she added.

Within a few months, Michael became a central figure in her life, her long-distance romance. He called himself her 'husband.'

"He said, 'I have been depressed, I have been sad, and you have helped me through those times,'" Elizabeth recalled. "And it was really quite beautiful."

Behind the scenes

But back at home in Atlanta, a group of supporting actors was preparing the stage for a scam worth more than half a million dollars. Elizabeth was their target.

Michael's story was a sham. Many of his love messages were copied word-for-word from love letter websites. The pictures of 'Michael Lawrence' were stolen from a man named Alexei Sitnikov in Russia.

*A comparison of a picture and message from the impostor “Michael Lawrence” and the real picture’s owner, Alexei Sitnikov. Image: Ampyx News*

Elizabeth’s searches online showed social media pages for Michael and a detailed website for his company, M Oil and Gas Institute, listing Michael as CEO.

"It had a whole, if you will, information about what they did, the type of work they did, the type of rigs they used, the location," she said. "They even had a map of the location of the offices in the UK."

Live Call

The scammers took it a step further. They made a live video call to Elizabeth on her travels in Hawaii, supposedly from Michael's work trip in Bangladesh.

"I think I was upset about something he said or did. Maybe I was getting suspicious, I'm not sure. He said, 'Oh, no, no, let's do some video calls. I'm here for you, everything's fine,'" Elizabeth said.

The voice and video matched her Michael. She knew nothing of deepfakes, computer-generated simulations that can look and sound real. This may have been the key that locked up the scam.

"He was the person that had been sending me all the pictures, looked exactly like the pictures," she said. "It was so real. And so convincing.”

Ready for the Scam

In Atlanta, three people had created a trap, a web of businesses and bank accounts, according to the suspects' indictment.

First, Carlee Anthony, a contractor and handyman according to his Facebook page, registered a business in Georgia called Carlee's Contracting and Remodeling at a house in Lawrenceville, Georgia, about 30 miles from downtown Atlanta.

He opened business bank accounts at banks with branches near his home, including Regions Bank and Truist Bank, then known as SunTrust, court documents said.

Second, Adewale Shofoluwe, a healthcare IT analyst according to his LinkedIn profile, registered a business at an apartment in Brookhaven, an Atlanta suburb.

He called it Awizzy Logistics, opening a business account at a bank branch nearby, now known as Truist, according to court documents.

Third, Henry Franklin, a college-level math instructor, registered a business called Gofarco at an apartment in Marietta, Georgia, near Atlanta.

He opened business accounts at Iberia Bank, Wells Fargo, and Truist, at the time SunTrust, the indictment said.

Three people, three companies, multiple accounts. All prepared, investigators said, for the final scene with Elizabeth and Michael.

The Con

In Bangladesh, Michael was trying to finish up a stressful business deal that would allow him to retire and be with Elizabeth, together at last.

He was buying oil rig equipment for $65 million dollars, but was in a remote area and needed her help.

"I said, 'I am not going to be looking at your bank account or moving any money,' " Elizabeth explained. "And he said, 'Please help me, because I'm on an oil rig here in Bangladesh. And I don't have access, and I need to give you access so we can pay for this rig.'"

She finally agreed, and at his request and instruction, logged into what looked like his real bank account on a real bank site. There she saw transactions that supported his story over the last few months, where he flew, where he stayed, what he did.

*A screenshot of the bank account and website where the scammers sent Elizabeth to help make her fictional long-distance romance make a purchase. Image: Ampyx News*

Deal in Danger

She transferred the money for him. But suddenly, a message popped up. Taxes on the rig were due, totaling about $20 million.

"I said, 'I hope you have the money for it,'" Elizabeth recounted. "He said, 'No, they froze all my assets, and I can't do it. And if I can't get the money now, I'll lose this project in Bangladesh.'"

There was a flurry of emails, calls, and messages, some from Michael's bank and attorney. If she could help pay the tax now, he could pay her back right away. And in a few days, all this stress would come to an end.

"He called me that night and said, 'I need your help. I'm going to reach out to my best friends. I have one in Australia, one in Tokyo, they can all provide me some money. Can you help me just a little bit to help me get my rig, because after this, we will have a life of bliss,'" said Elizabeth.

Against her better judgement, she decided to help. Michael seemed to have a great deal of money at his disposal, once his funds were unfrozen.

The Payment

As directed, she sent off $300,000 in several payments to a business account under the name Carlee's Contracting and Remodeling, supposedly a business that would help pay the taxes.

She checked the company's business registration before sending money and felt it looked legitimate.

*Georgia business registrations for Carlee’s Contracting & Remodeling and Awizzy Logistics. Image: State of Georgia & Ampyx News*

She then sent $350,000 more in several payments to the Awizzy Logistics account, after checking its business registration as well, believing the money would help complete the deal and allow Michael to come home.

But Michael never did. In fact, she believed she caused his death.

"That was very traumatic. And still is," she said, overcome with emotion. "It is a trigger that still hurts."

Moving Money

As soon as Elizabeth's money arrived in the accounts, the business owners, Carlee Anthony and Adewale Shofoluwe, started moving the funds out, in some cases, to the business accounts of Henry Franklin and Gofarco, investigators wrote in court documents.

Franklin also moved the money out quickly, sometimes to other countries, according to the indictment.

At some point during the process, Regions Bank detected a scam payment and called Elizabeth with the terrible news.

"I thought he was telling me a lie. I said, 'You don't know what you're talking about. This is a real person, I've been talking to him for a long time.'" Elizabeth recalled. "He said, 'Believe me, this is a scam.'"

Facing the truth

"I was so shocked. I was shaking. I was crying," Elizabeth said. "I couldn’t even breathe."

Devastated, she contacted Michael.

"He said, 'I don't know why you won't believe me because I'm telling the truth. But I hope one day you'll forgive me for what I'm about to do.' And that’s when I heard the gunshot,'" she said.

She believed the person on the other end of the line had killed himself. The scammers even had a fake attorney call her to ask about funeral arrangements for Michael.

"Talk about manipulation and cruelty, that did it," Elizabeth said. "I believed, even if he was a conman, he was a real person, a real Michael. I felt I had caused his suicide."

Fallout

Her life savings, gone. Her intense romance, just an illusion.

"I was so shaken. I couldn't go out of my house. I was so ashamed, embarrassed," Elizabeth said. "It is so traumatic. It really is. And there are times where you think you don't want to live."

While the scammers count their money, victims are left discarded and broken.

"I suppose if one could say hell, it was hell," Elizabeth said, crying. "I go back to thinking about this so many times, over and over and over, how naive could I have been to fall for this? But I did, I gave him my savings and my retirement money. And, so, they wiped me out."

She couldn't leave the house. She couldn't face other people. She went through more financial fallout, like having to pay taxes on the money she withdrew from her retirement accounts.

"You not only deal with the shame, the guilt, the loss of your financial stability, or your emotions, but it was a time that I couldn't even get up out of bed," Elizabeth said. "I spent probably five, six months where I couldn't even move out of my bedroom."

Arrests

Finally, police arrested three people in the Atlanta area: Carlee Anthony, Adewale Shofoluwe, and Henry Franklin.

Shofoluwe, the owner of Awizzy Logistics, disappeared. The masterminds, playing Michael, are likely overseas and possibly out of reach of U.S. law enforcement.

Would the case hold? Would anyone ever face a judge for the crime?

In Court

Five years after the scam, two of the local suspects, Carlee Anthony and Henry Franklin, appeared in court for a hearing about a possible plea bargain.

It was Elizabeth’s first time seeing the suspects face-to-face. Three other victims from Tennessee, Iowa, and Nevada, did not come to court.

"The last five years have been stressful for me, wondering if they would find these conmen, wondering if there would be any justice," she said.

Prosecuting attorney Drew Shumate described the scheme to DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Tangela Barrie. Anthony and Franklin sat silently, flanked by their defense attorneys.

Anthony opened up six accounts to run money through as banks constantly shut them down, Shumate said.

"Every time the account closed, he'd go to open up another account," he added.

Franklin moved more than $3.6 million dollars through his accounts in a few months and received $12,000 in payment, according to Shumate.

"He was receiving money like this through over 30 individuals who were all setting up shell companies to run the scam," Shumate told the judge.

Defense

Franklin's defense attorney, Kevin Ryan, said Franklin was just following orders from another player in the scheme, a woman who has not yet been arrested, and did not know the money was coming from scams.

"He would take that money with instructions, walk in with her outside in the car," Ryan told the judge. "He'd walk in, put the money into the account with instructions on where that money was to go. And that was what he thought was a business, a legitimate business."

How did a college-level math instructor believe that shuffling millions around, with banks shutting down multiple accounts, was legitimate?

"I don't mean to insult him, but he's a dumb smart guy," Ryan said.

"You mean, the banks closed his account and he would reopen it somewhere else?" Judge Barrie asked.

"He would open several accounts and run them through," Ryan answered. "She told him, 'Listen, if you run this amount of money through, some of these banks aren't going to like it, and they'll close you down.'"

"You can't be in academia and not understand your bank account being closed," Barrie commented drily. "Mmm, that's a red flag."

*Defense attorney Kevin Ryan explains how his client, Henry Franklin, moved money during a romance scheme at a court hearing in October 2024. Image: Ampyx News*

Blaming the Victim

Anthony's defense attorney, Averick Walker, told a similar story, that Anthony didn't know the money he moved was part of a scam. The attorney pointed the finger instead at Elizabeth.

"Here's a man that she just met on Bumblebee dating site. Bumblebee," he said, misquoting the name of the dating app, Bumble. "She met him on a dating site."

"So the question is, you know, does the victim, Miss (----), is she held to any kind of accountability as to what happened? This is her money," Walker asked. "She in love. She gave it to him. She gave him this money."

"He was intimidating," Elizabeth said later. "If that had been me five years ago, that would have been the end of me. I kid you not, he would have destroyed me. 'Cause I would have believed him: 'I'm not worth living.'"

Walker also claimed that Elizabeth called herself Michael's wife. Elizabeth said Michael is the one who called her 'wife' and himself 'husband,' part of the scam psychology tactics.

"She holding herself out as this man's wife. How do you steal from your wife? How does Mr. Lawrence steal from her and he her husband?" Walker asked. "This ain't no theft case. She gave him the money."

"Unending Emotional Suffering"

Would the judge buy the defense attorneys' arguments?

First, Elizabeth had a chance to read a statement. She described her first video call with Michael.

"This was the summer of 2019, before most people, including me, knew about AI and deepfakes, so the person I was speaking with seemed real," she said. "This included Skype calls where I saw his face."

"An actual Skype call?" asked the judge. "A picture or someone talking?"

"Talking. He was talking to me," Elizabeth answered.

Final Words

She detailed their last call together as well.

"He said, 'I don't know why you won't believe me. I truly care and hope someday you will forgive me for what I'm about to do,'" Elizabeth read, crying. "I heard a gunshot.”

“I believed that I had just heard this man, that I had spent the last several months getting to know, had just committed suicide,” she said.

She described the aftermath.

"In the weeks following, I did not sleep, I did not eat or leave my room. The emotional and psychological toll this took on me required 24/7 care with my doctors."

The stolen money was for her retirement and to care for her disabled sister, she said.

"I frequently contemplated suicide as a way to manage the unending emotional suffering, self-blame and shame I felt," she said.

DEAL OR NO DEAL?

The defense attorneys asked for a plea bargain, with Anthony and Franklin receiving probation only, no time behind bars.

The judge was not enthusiastic about the proposal.

"The bank's closing your account, you need to at least say, 'What's wrong?'" Judge Barrie said. "I'm not feeling probation."

*DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Tangela Barrie listens to attorney’s arguments during a plea hearing for suspects Carlee Anthony & Henry Franklin in October 2024. Image: Ampyx News*

Judge's Decision

At the next hearing, the judge approved a plea.

Anthony and Franklin agreed to testify against other members in the scheme. Anthony plead guilty. Franklin filed an Alford plea where he pleads guilty without admitting guilt.

And yes, prison. Three years each.

"If your accounts are being closed and you reopen them at different banks, that, generally, I don't care if you're 20 or 70, you know something's wrong," Judge Barrie said.

Money back?

Just two players from the scam, but there may be more to come as the investigation continues. Most romance scam victims never see anyone go to court. Elizabeth is one of the few.

"I do feel that justice has been served, because I didn't even think they would see jail time," she said.

Any chance of getting money back?

"I think justice will be completely served if there is restitution," Elizabeth said. "There's no guarantee of that, I know that. That would be a blessing."

Final Chapter

Months later, in March 2025, the hope for money back is still alive. Carlee Anthony and Henry Franklin appear in a video hearing from behind bars.

At age 77, Elizabeth has gone back to work, trying to save her home after the scam. Today's decision could make that happen.

"Was your savings account completely wiped out from the theft?" Shumate asks Elizabeth.

"Yes, it was," she responds.

She sent off $650,000 to the criminals during the scam. Luckily, the bank was able to stop about $100,000 of the payment. But she had to pay taxes of $150,000 on the money she withdrew from her retirement account for Michael. Her total loss is about $700,000.

"Were they willing to forgive those taxes because you were a victim or were they still charging you for that money?" asks Drew Shumate with the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office.

"No, no," Elizabeth answers. "There was still the charge. There was no forgiveness."

Arguing for the Defense

Now the defense attorneys can speak.

Anthony's attorney, Averick Walker, who spoke out against Elizabeth at the plea hearing, makes no argument.

"It is what it is," he told the judge.

But Franklin's attorney, Kevin Ryan, wants Judge Barrie to cut down the amount Franklin would pay back, saying Franklin didn't know he was part of a scam, he was just one player of many, and he didn't keep much of the money.

"The money didn't go to Mr. Franklin and stay with Mr. Franklin," Ryan said. "And I'm very sorry for what happened to this woman, but I just don't know that my client's fully responsible for the tax ramification."

The judge disagrees.

"Everybody's claiming they didn't get any money, right? No one knows where this money went," Judge Barrie said. "That's at least the claim. My position is, well, you should have known. You should have known you were involved within something that was dubious."

The final ruling?

Judge Barrie decides Anthony must return to Elizabeth about $115,000 and Franklin about $200,000, both starting in 2027. Franklin also has to pay the other three victims about $210,000, split among them.

"Terrible Lesson"

Elizabeth may never receive that restitution money. A court order does not guarantee payment. Even fully paid, it would fall short of what she lost.

But she takes solace in helping other people avoid the same heartbreak. The numbers show romance scam victims lost more than $1 billion in the U.S. in 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

"I learned a terrible lesson. But I hope that lesson will help others," Elizabeth said. "There's so many people today that are still experiencing and going through the same type of cons."

"Super Intelligent"

Romance scams can happen to people of all education levels.

"I've had victims with master's degrees, bachelor's degrees, super intelligent, and they fell for a scam. And they're embarrassed," said Officer Maria Jones with the Brookhaven Police Department in the suburbs of Atlanta.

"But if they don't speak up or say something or report it, this person is going to continue to do this to other people," Jones added. "And it hinders us from catching them and stopping them overall."

Cruelty to Victims

It's more than just embarrassment. Many people online mock and blame victims, saying it's their fault and they deserve what they get.

"For those that say that we're stupid, I would say to you, that's fine. Maybe we are. But it doesn't solve the problem," Elizabeth said. "Shaming ourselves isn't going to do any good. The scammers will continue to operate."

"We need to do everything we can do to make sure that people aren't suffering from these types of scams and criminalization," she added.

"Don't blame yourself. If you're a victim, please come forward," she said. "Let us help each other."

Inside the scam: Atlanta woman loses $500,000 to love scammers