How I was scammed by a Nigerian Pastor Ikimi Onoriode (a.ka Pastor Onos Elijah Ikimi), living in Houston Texas

Scammer’s Facebook profile.



There are scammers everywhere, in our churches, workplace, family members, and a lot of times the victims are too busy to
expose it or they just “let go”. Moving on is ok but, the only problem is, we give these scammers the effrontery to continue
what they do and they can use the same trick for other people whom we might have just saved if we have told our stories.

This is the reason why I am telling mine on this blog. Although, I have filed an official complaint against him, telling the story
was still necessary.

Here is a summary of my dealings with Ikimi Onoriode :

I am a Nigerian, but resident in the Netherlands. On one of my visits last year to a friend, Mr. Raphael who resides in
Germany, (also Nigerian), he reintroduced me to Onoriode Ikimi (Onos Elijah Ikimi), who is also Nigerian. We all lived in the
same neighbourhood in Warri as teenagers’ way back. Raphael had told me nice stories about him on how he claimed to be
rich now and just bought a car for his wife. I was impressed at the success for a fellow Warri boy. Ikimi now claims to be a
pastor running his own church, IKIMI MINISTRIES INC in Houston Texas at 14101 Walters Rd Apt 701 Houston, TX 77014-
1314. He bragged that he owns and operates a Foreign Exchange (FX) trading company also in Texas, IKIMI FINANCIALS
LLC and also carry out trading on behalf of willing investors. To back up his claims, he sent Raphael screenshots of two of
the accounts he was trading, with each portfolio worth of $220,000 and $12,000 (both fake?, let us find out). We spoke on
facetime, and he had explained that he pays his investors 60% of their capital after 40days in succession. He bragged that
the 60% is inclusive whether he makes profit or losses. Well, for an investor, it sounds like a good deal, but also too good to
be true. But I convinced myself that if he was already handling bigger portfolios then he can handle mine. I believed him, and
considering that I knew him to some extent, I decided to invest. I requested that he sent me his company’s account to send
my capital, but he sends me a PayPal account bearing his name (ikimionoriode@gmail.com) to send my money. I made a
total deposit of $5000 in two splits of USD $2250 (on 26th July 2017) and USD $2750 (on 31 July 2017). At this point, I had
not noticed what he had done.




First transfer Paid




Second transfer Paid





Upon receipt of the $5000, he acknowledged receiving the money and clearly stated that he would pay-out $8000 (which is
60% as agreed) when due.



The first and only reply from Ikimi

As part of our conversation on facetime, we agreed that we would sign an agreement on our dealing. So I reminded him
after sending the cash, but to my surprise, he was kind of dicey and at the end, he refused, and gave a very cynical reason.
He complained that he could not sign any agreement with me at the moment because I had paid money into his church
account (IKIMI MINISTRIES INC) and not his business account (IKIMI FINANCIALS LLC). At this point, I suspected that he
might a fraudster because he deliberately gave me a PayPal account bearing his name but registered under the name of his
church and not his trading company. Besides what is the difference, he operated both and could easily move money from to

another. I could not understand the logic behind collecting my money through your church account for a business with your
trading account. This was the first red flag. (See chat conversation). Finally, he was able to trick me that we should proceed
but would prepare an agreement for the next trade cycle (that is after the first 40days). I still felt a bit of discomfort on how he
tricked me with the account thing and decided to look him up on the internet. I found out he is into online pastoral begging in
Texas for donations (https://twitter.com/onoriodei, https://www.gofundme.com/children-with-cancer,
https://ikimiministries.givingfuel.com/ikimi-ministries). Everything looks sketchy now. Well, money has already been sent, I
should have done this before sending and not after. Now, all I have to do is wait and see.



Chat conversation on Whatsapp

Few days before the 40th day would elapse, I reintroduced the issue of drafting an agreement as agreed by both parties
earlier, but he stops replying to my emails or chats. This continued until and after the due date he was supposed to make
payment to me. I threatened that I will sue him for breach of our agreement and he paid $2750 via PayPal back to me. He
had since disappeared and never replied my email again. I made several attempt to contact the board of directors of his
church (Ismail Adetonor and Jessica Ikimi), but none replied to my emails. I can only guess that they might be all involved in the
scam together. I noticed that the status of the church registration (IKIMI MINISTRIES INC) has been inactive. I also noticed
that the trading company (IKIMI FINANCIALS LLC) he had claimed to operate was not even existing at the time he collected
money from me. The trading company he claimed to have had was only registered on the 1st of August 2017, while he had
collected money from me on the 26th and 31st of July. This also means that the two trading portfolios ($220,000 and
$12,000) he claimed to operate with the said trading account were fake. He had sent those to Raphael initially with clear
intentions of misrepresentation and to trick me into his investment scam. Red flags everywhere… ( More Screenshots below)

Pictured below also is Jessica Ikimi with Onos.