Raleigh woman headed to prison for being ‘money mule’ in international romance scheme
A Wake County woman will spend two years in prison for her part in an international romance fraud scheme, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Michon Raquel Griffin, 46, of Raleigh pleaded guilty July 10 to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and making false statements on an individual income tax return form, according to a news release from the office of Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina Daniel P. Bubar.
Bubar’s office described a “romance scam” as an online “fraud scheme that occurs when a fraudster adopts a fake online identity to gain a victim’s affection and trust.” The romantic relationship is then used to convince the victim to give their fake partner money.
Griffin acted as a “money mule” in such a scam, establishing bank accounts in at least 16 banks under fake business names to move the money to co-conspirators in Nigeria, the release said.
The fraud began around 2021 and continued through at least June 2023, while Griffin’s false tax return was submitted Aug. 8, 2022, according to court documents.
In that time period, Griffin received over $2 million through the scheme and deposited it into the accounts, then converted the money into virtual currency, the release said. She then wired the funds to her counterparts abroad.
Griffin earned at least $300,000 doing so, but didn’t report it on her tax returns, according to the release. Court documents show she must forfeit those proceeds to the federal government.
In addition to her prison sentence, Griffin will be on supervised release for three years and must pay $109,119 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, Bubar’s office said.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 5:48 PM.
