CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Ghanaian social media influencer who is accused of running a scam that defrauded older Americans out of over $8 million by romancing them under false identities was extradited to the United States, his lawyer said Friday.
Federal prosecutors had secured an indictment in December against the man, Frederick Kumi, charging that he was part of a criminal network devising romance scams. Kumi has denied the allegations.
The group created false identities using artificial intelligence software and used them to target older people on social media and online dating platforms, according to the U.S. attorney’s office of the Northern District of Ohio, which filed the charges.
After building trust through “extensive intimate conversations by phone, email and messaging,” the indictment said, the fraudsters claimed they needed money for urgent medical needs, travel expenses or investment opportunities.
Kumi, a resident of Swedru, Ghana, who posted online under the name Abu Trica, was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and other offenses. Prosecutors accused him of working with associates to distribute money from Ohio and across the United States to Ghana and elsewhere.
Kumi on Thursday boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from Accra International Airport bound for the United States, said his lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawor.
If convicted, Kumi faces up to 20 years in prison, according to prosecutors. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Ohio did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Posting as Abu Trica, Kumi amassed nearly 100,000 followers on Instagram, where he shared images of himself posing in front of luxury cars. He also went by the name Emmanuel Kojo Baah Obeng, according to prosecutors, who listed his age as 31. His lawyer said he was 28.
The indictment accused Kumi and his conspirators of obtaining more than $8 million from victims starting around April 2023 to late 2025. Assuming false personas, at times with the use of artificial intelligence, they developed close online relationships with older people that were often “romantic in nature but physically remote,” according to prosecutors.
After convincing people that they urgently needed funds, proceeds from their scheme were laundered and transferred to Kumi and others based in Ghana, the indictment said.
Barker-Vormawor, who challenged the extradition order in a Ghanaian court, said Kumi had been flown to the United States before the challenge was resolved. Ghana’s Ministry of Justice and the Ghana Police Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to the BBC, Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, the attorney general of Ghana, disputed Barker-Vormawor’s account and said the challenge had been dismissed.
As part of an effort to combat elder abuse and financial fraud, federal prosecutors in the United States have recently announced several indictments involving older people who had been targeted by romance scammers abroad.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.