A New York woman was indicted by a Plymouth County grand jury on Tuesday on charges that she participated in a scheme to “catfish” a Massachusetts woman who believed she had an online relationship with a CIA agent-businessman and handed over more than $300,000, officials said.
Nikeisha Lewis, 42, was indicted on charges of larceny over $1,200, receiving stolen property over $1,200, and money laundering, according to the Plymouth District Attorney’s office.
Prosecutors allege that during the coronavirus pandemic, a Plymouth County woman began what she thought was an online romance with “Richard Kobstar,” a phony dating profile for a man purporting to be a CIA agent and the owner of a lucrative diamond mining company.
In fall 2020, someone using the Kobstar account convinced the woman to invest in his company and she sent large sums in cash, checks, and wire transfers to Lewis, who was described to her as Kobstar’s assistant, prosecutors said.
Lewis fraudulently deposited the money into her own business account at Wells Fargo Bank and concealed the payments by quickly withdrawing the stolen money at random ATMs, prosecutors allege.
By December 2021, the woman had begun to suspect she was being scammed and in March 2022 she went to the Plymouth police, who launched an investigation involving the review of thousands of financial records, prosecutors said.
Over the course of 15 months, the woman sent more than $300,000 to Lewis, who allegedly paid utility, mortgage, and credit card bills with the money and used it to buy groceries and pay for travel expenses, prosecutors said.
There was no attorney listed for Lewis in online court records. An arraignment date has not been set, prosecutors said.
Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him @jeremycfox.