Twin brothers from Ghana and an American woman have pleaded guilty to participating in an international criminal network that carried out dating site and social media fraud. The syndicate focused its operations on elderly individuals across the United States and Europe by adopting false personas to establish fake romantic connections, eventually convincing the victims to transfer substantial amounts of money to bank accounts located in Ghana.
Details of the Scam and Forfeiture
The defendants include 22-year-old twins Jamal and Kamal Abubakari, alongside 53-year-old Amanda Joy Opoku-Boachie from Hawaii, who each face maximum prison sentences of 20 years and are scheduled for sentencing next year. Collective losses among the victims reached $9 million between July 2024 and April 2026. While a significant portion of the victims resided in Ohio—where prosecutors filed the charges—others lived across 24 different US states, Germany, and Austria.
As part of their guilty pleas, the Abubakaris and Opoku-Boachie agreed to surrender various jewelry items confiscated by investigators during their arrests, which included luxury watches, rings, chains, and earrings. The three individuals used multiple aliases during the operations. Jamal Abubakari went by the names Jamal Abubakar and Arrangement, Kamal Abubakari used Kamal Abubakar and Lancaster, and Amanda Joy Opoku-Boachie operated under the names Amanda Joy Glum and Amanda Joy Kessei Bierman.
Broader US Crackdown on Cybercrime
US law enforcement agencies have intensified efforts in recent months to dismantle criminal rings operating between the US and West Africa that target elderly Americans. Earlier this month, FBI Director Kash Patel announced hundreds of arrests following the dismantling of a scam center in Ghana. Additionally, in June, a Ghanaian social media influencer named Frederick Kumi—also known as Abu Trica—was extradited to the United States to stand trial for allegedly managing a separate romance scam that extracted over $8 million from elderly Americans.
Kumi allegedly used social media and online dating applications to approach victims, soliciting money or valuables by making false claims such as urgent medical emergencies. That case is being handled under the US Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution law, and Kumi maintains his innocence against all charges brought against him.
