Defendants sentenced in romance scam case

The last of seven Columbus-area defendants convicted of laundering nearly $12 million for online romance scammers in Ghana was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Columbus.

Kwame O. Yeboah, 38, of Columbus, was sentenced by a federal judge to one year and six months in prison and three years of supervised release for laundering more than $1.7 million through his Columbus restaurant’s bank accounts. The judge also ordered Yeboah and two of his codefendants to jointly pay $1.7 million in restitution.

In announcing the case’s conclusion, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Kenneth Parker’s office said the seven defendants stole a total $11.8 million from the scam victims and moved the funds from the U.S. to Ghana.

Scammers, whom court documents say resided in Ghana, created fake profiles on online dating sites and cultivated relationships with men and women across the United States. After the perpetrators established relationships and gained their victims’ trust, they asked for money to invest in gold or diamond mines or for financial or legal troubles, according to court documents.

In one case, an individual sent scammers $5 million over a period of a year, according to court documents.

“The fraudsters in Ghana had a problem: victims were willing to send them money, totaling millions of dollars, but the funds could not be sent directly to the fraudsters,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter K. Glenn-applegate in a court document. “Financial institutions block large wires from the United States to Ghana, which banks regard as a high-risk jurisdiction.”

So the scammers would direct their victims to send money to accounts associated with the American defendants in this case, who would move around the money in a way that hid the scheme from law enforcement and banks before ultimately moving the money to Ghana, according to federal prosecutors.

The other defendants previously convicted in this case and their sentences are as follows:

● Robert K. Asante, 39, of Canal Winchester: five years in prison

● Eric Ahiekpor, 52, of Lewis Center: three years in prison

● Edward Amankwah, 45, of Westerville: four years in prison

● Uriah Lamdul, 30, of Columbus: two years in prison

● Mohamed Toure, 28, of Columbus: one year and six months in prison

● Alexis Wellington, 32, of Canal Winchester: probation

Asante organized and led the scheme, according to federal prosecutors.

Yeboah owned and operated the Twist Lounge & Grill on Columbus’ North Side, and at first thought Asante and Ahiekpor were investing in his business, according to a sentencing memo filed with the court by Yeboah’s defense attorney, Keith Yeazel.

Yeboah funneled money from the scheme through his business accounts without initially realizing where the money came from, according to Yeazel.

“Once Kwame discovered the funds were derived from romance scams, he confronted Asante and Ahiekpor,” Yeazel said. “Nonetheless, Kwame continued to conduct business with Asante and Ahiekpor, out of fear of being prosecuted because his accounts and businesses were now associated with criminal activity.”

Due to the scheme, the Twist Lounge & Grill lost money and was closed, according to the memo.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Columbus, Toure was also convicted and sentenced for money laundering as part of an unrelated scheme that involved a fraudulent application for a federal Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), a pandemic-era program operated by the U.S. Small Business Association.

Ahiekpor was also convicted and sentenced for wire fraud for his role in defrauding the EIDL program.

The public can report online romance scams and other internet crimes at ic3.gov. jlaird@dispatch.com @Lairdwrites