A 31-year-old Ghanaian man could be facing up to 50 years in jail after being found guilty of money laundering and fraud by a United States court.
Abdul Inusah was convicted for his role in a Huntington-based scheme that defrauded individuals in multiple states through the use of false online personas.
In a statement, the United States Department of Justice said “evidence at trial revealed that Inusah was part of a conspiracy that targeted victims using false personas via email, text messaging, and online dating and social media websites.”
It added that “from at least January 2018 through at least December 2019, the scheme sought to induce victims into believing they were in a romantic relationship, friendship, or business relationship with various false personas.”
The victims were persuaded to send money for a variety of false and fraudulent reasons for the benefit of the false personas.
For instance, one false persona, “Miarama,” was used to induce an Alabama resident into providing $106,000 via wire transfers and cashier’s checks. The amount included $48,000 to pay overdue taxes on a nonexistent gold inheritance in Ghana and $21,000 wired to Bitsav Supply LLC, a shell company set up by Inusah.
“The jury found Inusah guilty of receipt of stolen money, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts of wire fraud. The wire fraud counts involve a pair of $2,000 Zelle wire transfers to Inusah from the money obtained using the “Miarama” false persona in January 2019.
Inusah is scheduled to be sentenced on November 21, 2022.
He is reported to be the son of the former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, and former Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini.
