U.S. court has sentenced Ghana’s Derrick Van Yeboah to 85 months’ imprisonment and two years of supervised release for romance scams totaling $10 million that targeted lonely and vulnerable American citizens.
U.S. district judge Arun Subramanian, who issued the sentence on Wednesday, further ordered Mr Yeboah to pay $10,149,429.17 in forfeiture to the American government.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation liaised with the Office of the Attorney General of Ghana to extradite Mr Yeboah to the U.S. in August 2025, where he pled guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in March 2026.
Mr Yeboah, 41, was also involved with an international crime ring that fleeced more than $100 million from business email compromise, targeting older men and women residing in the U.S. who sought romantic relationships online.
The Ghanaian assumed a fake identity to deceive a woman living in Ohio and another woman in Delaware into sending $4.2 million to different accounts between 2019 and 2020.
In 2024, he targeted a male victim in North Carolina. He tricked him into transferring $123,000 after claiming the money would be used to fund his parents’ funeral and process the recovery of his gold and diamonds held in Italy.
“Romance scammers do not simply steal money—they weaponise trust,” U.S. attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement on Wednesday. “Van Yeboah and his co-conspirators exploited trust, loneliness, and legitimate business relationships to steal more than $100 million. Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of these calculated frauds and our commitment to pursuing international criminal organisations that target Americans.”
