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U.S. Department of Justice PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Information, Contact Public Affairs |
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Local Nurse Convicted of Conspiracy to Commit Extortion
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and Chief Phillip Morse, of the U.S. Capitol Police, jointly announced today, that a federal jury in Washington, D.C. convicted Queen Nwoye, 28, of Laurel, MD, of Conspiracy to Commit Extortion. The trial was held before United States District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. Nwoye faces a statutory penalty of up to five years in jail, three years of supervised release, a fine and restitution when she is sentenced on January 18, 2008.
The evidence presented at trial demonstrated that in 2001, Nwoye immigrated from Nigeria to the United States with her husband and children. Eventually, Nwoye met a local physician, Dr. Ikemba Iweala, whose wife was then an official with the Nigerian government. Nwoye and the doctor engaged in an extramarital affair for several months, beginning in late 2002. After the affair ended, Ms. Nwoye began another extramarital affair with her co-conspirator, who lived in California, but often visited Maryland, where Nwoye lived.
In February 2006, Ms. Nwoye informed her lover and co-conspirator that she had once dated Dr. Iweala. The co-conspirator quickly formed a plan to extort the doctor. In furtherance of that plan, Ms. Nwoye called the doctor to tell him that she had told one of her cousins about her affair with the doctor, and the cousin – who actually was the co-conspirator – wanted to speak to the doctor. The doctor reluctantly called the cousin, i.e., the co-conspirator, who then demanded payment from the doctor in exchange for not informing the doctor’s wife and the press about his affair with
Ms. Nwoye.
During the course of the conspiracy, from February 21, 2006, through April 10, 2006, the doctor made six separate payments, totaling $185,000, to Ms. Nwoye and the co-conspirator. Financial records showed that Ms. Nwoye, who personally picked up several of the payments or received wire transfers into her bank account, kept $11,000 of the proceeds while the co-conspirator retained the remainder of the payments.
In announcing today’s verdict, U.S. Attorney Taylor, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini, and U.S. Capitol Police Chief Morse, praised the efforts of FBI Special Agent William Ronacher, and U.S. Capitol Police Detective Mark Crawford, who conducted the investigation. They also commended the U.S. Attorney Office staff that assisted in the successful prosecution, including Phaylyn Hunt, Latoya Wade, Kimberly Smith, Oliver John-Baptiste and Barbara Necastro and Intern Kenny Howard, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorneys Angela Hart-Edwards and Frederick Yette, who prosecuted the case.