Ghanaian, Van Yeboah, jailed 85 months in US over $100m romance-scam network

A Ghanaian man described by US prosecutors as one of the leaders of a Ghana-based fraud network has been sentenced to 85 months in prison, a little over seven years, for his part in a scheme that stole more than $100 million through romance scams and business email fraud.

Derrick Van Yeboah, known as "Van," was sentenced on Monday by US District Judge Arun Subramanian in New York, after pleading guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. 

Prosecutors said he was personally responsible for more than $10 million of the losses, and he agreed to restitution and forfeiture of $10,149,429.17.

According to the case against him, Van Yeboah worked within an organisation that targeted vulnerable older men and women across the United States, drawing them into online relationships with people who did not exist. 

He impersonated fictitious romantic partners himself, prosecutors said, part of an operation that paired the romance con with business email compromise, in which criminals hijack or mimic company email accounts to redirect payments.

The sentence lands amid a run of US prosecutions of Ghanaians over online fraud. 

Another suspect, Abu Trica, was extradited this month to face charges over an $8 million romance scam that also preyed on the elderly. 

The pattern has pushed investigators at home to keep warning the public about how the schemes work and how to spot them.

Van Yeboah admitted his role back in March.

He had faced up to 20 years.