{"id":2036007,"date":"2026-07-09T16:45:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2036007"},"modified":"2026-07-09T16:45:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:45:44","slug":"ghanas-abu-trica-extradited-to-us-charged-with-scamming-elderly-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2036007","title":{"rendered":"Ghana’s Abu Trica extradited to US charged with ‘scamming elderly Americans’"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/6868\/live\/f2a854c0-7bae-11f1-bee8-53ce494e1abc.png”]<\/p>\n

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\"ABUTRICA\/INSTAGRAMABUTRICA\/INSTAGRAM<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Abu Trica raised suspicions after flaunting cars, cash and luxury properties online<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A Ghanaian social media influencer known as Abu Trica, whose real name is Frederick Kumi, has been extradited to the US to face trial for allegedly running a romance scam that defrauded elderly Americans of over $8m (\u00a35.9m).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He denies all the charges against him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Prosecutors said he used AI tools to create fake online identities, targeting victims through social media and dating sites, earning their trust then extorting their money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kumi was flown to the US on Thursday and faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kumi’s lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, told the BBC he went to court on Thursday to stop the extradition before learning a short while later that Kumi had in fact already been extradited on board a Delta Airlines flight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Barker-Vormawor accuses Ghana’s government of sidestepping “judicial oversight” by allegedly not waiting for the court’s verdict, and says their decision to extradite Kumi “raises profound constitutional questions”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Ghanaian government has yet to comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kumi had long flaunted luxury items online to his more than 100,000 Instagram followers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This raised suspicions about the sources of his income.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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US prosecutors say victims were allegedly targeted through social media and online dating platforms, lured in via frequent and intimate conversations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This would escalate to “requests for money or valuables under false pretences – such as urgent medical needs, travel expenses or investment opportunities”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The monies, or valuables, were then directed to co-conspirators posing as third parties. Kumi allegedly distributed the money to his associates in the US and in Ghana.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kumi, who is from the town of Swedru in southern Ghana, was arrested in a joint Ghana-US operation last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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There is some disagreement about Kumi’s true age, with his lawyer saying he 28 years old and US prosecutors saying he is 31.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The case is being prosecuted under the US Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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US authorities have in recent months stepped up their crackdown on criminal networks operating in the US and West Africa who seek to defraud elderly Americans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Last week, extradited Ghanaian fraudster Joseph Kwadwo Badu Boateng – popularly known as Dada Joe Remix – pleaded guilty in the US to using romance and inheritance schemes to defraud Americans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In December, a court in the US also sentenced Oluwaseun Adekoya, a Nigerian ringleader of nationwide bank fraud and money-laundering conspiracies, to 20 years in prison for laundering over $2m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Additional reporting by Natasha Booty<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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You may also be interested in:<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"GettyGetty Images\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Go to <\/i>BBCAfrica.com<\/i> for more news from the African continent.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Follow us on Twitter <\/i>@BBCAfrica<\/i>, on Facebook at <\/i>BBC Africa<\/i> or on Instagram at <\/i>bbcafrica<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cz75zp9752do”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/6868\/live\/f2a854c0-7bae-11f1-bee8-53ce494e1abc.png”] ABUTRICA\/INSTAGRAM Abu Trica raised suspicions after flaunting cars, cash and luxury properties online A Ghanaian social media influencer known as Abu Trica, whose real name is Frederick Kumi, has been extradited to the US to face trial for allegedly running a romance scam that defrauded elderly Americans of over $8m (\u00a35.9m). He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2036007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2036007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2036007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2036007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2036007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}