The U.S. Division of Justice charged 4 Ghanaian nationals for his or her roles in an enormous fraud ring linked to the theft of over $100 million in romance scams and enterprise e-mail compromise assaults.
The defendants had been allegedly high-ranking members of a serious worldwide fraud ring primarily based in Ghana that focused firms and people throughout america between 2016 and Might 2023.
Isaac Oduro Boateng (also referred to as “Kofi Boat”), Inusah Ahmed (“Pascal”), Derrick Van Yeboah (“Van”), and Patrick Kwame Asare (“Borgar”) had been extradited from Ghana and arrived in america on August 7.
“The defendants have been dropped at america to be held accountable for his or her alleged roles in scamming firms and weak People out of over $100 million,” mentioned FBI Assistant Director in Cost Christopher G. Raia on Friday.
In keeping with court docket paperwork, the fraudsters (who referred to as themselves “sakawa boys” or “sport boys”) primarily focused weak older women and men who lived alone, deceiving them into believing they had been in romantic relationships over the web after gaining their belief, and tricking them into depositing cash into the accounts of middlemen within the U.S.
These middlemen would then launder the cash, take their lower of the stolen funds, and ship the remainder to members of the fraud ring in West Africa who coordinated the crime ring’s fraudulent actions, generally known as “chairmen.”
The alleged scammers additionally tricked quite a few companies into wiring funds following enterprise e-mail compromise assaults, utilizing e-mail addresses designed to spoof or impersonate the accounts of shoppers or different staff.
“These faux e-mail accounts had been particularly designed to trick different staff of the corporate with entry to the corporate’s funds into considering the faux e-mail accounts had been genuine,” based on an unsealed indictment.
“The faux e-mail accounts had been then used to ship directions to wire cash to sure financial institution accounts and likewise included faux authorization letters for the wire transfers that contained cast signatures of firm staff.”
Boateng and Ahmed had been each chairmen within the operation, whereas Asare and Van Yeboah had been additionally high-ranking members within the rip-off ring, with the latter immediately concerned in romance scams.
The 4 Ghanaian nationals face expenses of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, every carrying a most sentence of 20 years. They’re additionally charged with conspiracy to commit cash laundering (20 years), conspiracy to obtain stolen cash (as much as 5 years), and receipt of stolen cash (as much as 10 years).
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