FIVE THINGS ABOUT THE FAKE U.S. EMBASSY IN GHANA

HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

For a decade, an American flag flew outside a battered pink building in Accra, Ghana’s capital city. Signs told visitors they’d arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Accra. The “consular officers” working there were not Americans, but spoke English and Dutch and issued official-looking visas and identification papers. They charged their customers US$6,000.

NOTHING OFFICIAL ABOUT THEM

The real U.S. Embassy in Accra is white, not pink, and sits inside security fences in one of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods. The battered building was a fake — run by Ghanaian and Turkish organized crime rings and a Ghanaian attorney. “For about a decade it operated unhindered,” the state department said. “The criminals running the operation were able to pay off corrupt officials to look the other way, as well as obtain legitimate blank documents to be doctored.”

HOW IT WORKED

The sham embassy did not allow walk-in appointments but instead recruited customers from remote parts of Africa. They would shuttle customers to Accra, rent them rooms in a hotel and shuttle them to the fake embassy, which operated on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to noon. The Turks posing as “consulate officers” issued U.S. work visas, counterfeit visas and false Ghanaian papers, like bank and education records and birth certificates. U.S. officials did not say how many people, if any, may have entered the United States illegally.

CANADIAN ASSISTANCE

Officials shut down the operation after an informant tipped off the state department’s Regional Security Office. The RSO formed a task force that included Canadian embassy officials. Their role has not been disclosed.

NOT THE FIRST TIME

Similar operations have been busted in Accra, including one in January that had been making and selling fake documents for 13 years. Authorities found 190 passports, three printers, one camera, 75 rubber stamps, two lamination machines and a laptop.