A U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian has imposed a 7-year (85 months) federal prison term on Ghanaian citizen Derrick Van Yeboah for his involvement in a romantic scam operation that swindled elderly white Americans out of $100 million.
The 41-year-old entered a guilty plea bargain on March 25, 2026 after admitting to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
In addition to the jail sentence, the court mandated that Van Yeboah undergo two years of supervised release after the conclusion of his term and relinquish an astonishing $10,149,429.17 in profits associated with the scam.
On Tuesday, July 28, 2026, the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York released a press statement confirming his sentence.
How Derrick Van Yeboah Used Fake Identities To Scam His Victims
Court records indicate that Van Yeboah was affiliated to a criminal enterprise mostly situated in Ghana, which perpetrated romantic frauds and business email hacks targeting people and enterprises around the United States. Numerous victims of the conspiracy were susceptible elderly individuals who were deceived into thinking they were engaged in online love relationships with individuals who were, in reality, fictitious personas created by conspirators.
According to the US Attorney’s Office, after Van his crew earn the confidence of their targets, the fraudsters misled these unsuspecting individuals into transferring their monies to the organization or assisting in the laundering of money from other victims. The conspirators further executed corporate email breaches to mislead and manipulate companies into transferring monies to the organization.
Van took a central role in orchestrating numerous scams. For instance, during 2019 and 2020, he adopted false identities to carry out romance scams targeting women from Ohio and Delaware, ultimately convincing them to transfer around $4.2 million to accounts associated with the conspiracy.
In 2024, he constructed a false identity to perpetrate a romance scam targeting a man from North Carolina. He successfully persuaded the victim to transfer around $123,000 to accounts associated with the conspiracy by asserting that the funds were necessary for a parent’s funeral and to retrieve gold and diamonds from Italy.
The plot appropriated and concealed over $100 million from several victims. Following the theft of the funds, the illicit earnings were subsequently laundered to West Africa.
The purported architect and head of the criminal enterprise, Isaac Oduro Boateng, often referred to as Kofi Boat, is anticipated to stand trial after his not guilty plea to the charges made against him.
How Ghanaian Authorities Assisted In Van Yeboah’s Extradition Process
His extradition from Ghana to the United States finally took place on August 7, 2025, after months of his detention and legal proceedings.
The United States expressed appreciation for the significant cooperation received from various agencies, including Ghana’s Attorney General’s Office, the Economic and Organised Crime Office, the Ghana Police Service, the Cyber Security Authority, the Narcotics Control Commission, the National Intelligence Bureau, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, and the FBI Legal Attaché Office in Accra.
