EOCO arrests two persons for alleged romance fraud

The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has arrested two Ghanaians for allegedly engaging in trade-based money laundering and romance fraud.

The suspects, Moro Musah and Sabina Adzre are said to have worked with a UK-based accomplice, Opoku Agyeman to scam over 16 British nationals of about £5 million.

They were arrested on Tuesday after a year-long investigation by security agencies in Ghana and UK.

Opoku-Agyeman was arrested in the UK.

At a press briefing in Accra, a Deputy Executive Director of EOCO in charge of Operations, Nana Antwi, said the investigations were carried out by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), NACOB, and Police and coordinated by EOCO as well as the UK’s National Crime Agency.

He said the investigations, which was started by the UK’s Crime Agency revealed that the monies acquired through the crime were transferred to Ghana through some banks, withdrawn and later invested in legitimate businesses mainly clothing.

He explained that “romance scam is a particular dangerous and vicious form of mass market fraud because it targets not only the victim’s assets but also abuses them emotionally. Trade-based money laundering on the other hand is exploiting legitimate businesses to launder proceeds of crime.”