“Romance scammers do not simply steal money — they weaponize trust,” Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, wrote in a statement describing the work of a longtime member of an international fraud ring.
Derrick Van Yeboah: role, plea and sentence
Derrick Van Yeboah, a 41-year-old Ghanaian national, was sentenced to 85 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the Justice Department said. As part of a March plea agreement, Van Yeboah agreed to forfeit $10.15 million in fraudulent proceeds. Authorities said he operated as a “sakawa boy,” impersonating romantic partners and directly interacting with victims online from February 2015 to October 2024.
Scale of the operation and identified victims
Federal officials described Van Yeboah as a longtime, high-ranking member of a criminal organization primarily based in Ghana that has been linked to more than $100 million stolen through romance scams and business email compromises. Investigators identified at least 20 victims targeted by Van Yeboah’s activity. Court records detailed several large losses: a woman from Delaware who either sent or laundered $1.9 million; a woman from Ohio who sent or laundered $2.3 million; another woman who sent or laundered about $1 million; and a North Carolina man who was tricked into sending $123,000 after Van Yeboah claimed he needed a loan for his mother’s funeral and to remove imaginary gold and diamonds from storage in Italy.
How victims were deceived and funds moved
Officials said some victims were deceived into not only sending money but also creating companies and using those entities to unwittingly launder funds from other victims. The Justice Department framed the scheme as sustained and systematic: Van Yeboah “engaged in the fraud scheme for nine years,” Clayton wrote, and the prosecutor characterized his conduct as “far from an aberration.”
Arrest, assets and evidence recovered
Ghanaian police arrested Van Yeboah in June 2025 on a request from the Justice Department; he was extradited to the United States two months later. Authorities reported that Van Yeboah told pretrial services his assets included a house valued at $1.5 million and jewelry worth $515,000. When Ghanaian police arrested him, they found him in possession of two vehicles stolen from the United States and Canada.
How prosecutors, victims, and Ghanaian police are responding
- Prosecutors (U.S. attorney’s office, Justice Department): Emphasized the emotional as well as financial harm. In a pre-sentencing letter, Jay Clayton said victims “lost large portions of their life savings, money they had counted on for retirement” and were “emotionally devastated.” The forfeiture and prison term form part of the U.S. response to that harm.
- Victims (identified individuals from Delaware, Ohio, North Carolina and others): Were reported to have either sent or laundered substantial sums — examples include $2.3 million and $1.9 million losses — and in at least one case a man was manipulated with a fabricated funeral and imaginary treasure story to send $123,000.
- Ghanaian police and international law enforcement: Executed the arrest in June 2025 and recovered physical evidence, including two vehicles described as stolen from the United States and Canada; they then carried out the extradition to the United States two months later.
Van Yeboah’s sentence, the $10.15 million forfeiture agreement, and the identification of at least 20 victims highlight both the individual harm in this case and the broader reach of the criminal network officials say is linked to more than $100 million in theft. Clayton’s pre-sentencing description framed the work as persistent and deliberate: “Day after day, for years, he targeted vulnerable victims, lied to them, and stole from them.”
The record released by prosecutors establishes the legal outcome for one member of a transnational fraud ring; it also underscores the methods used to convert emotional deception into large-scale financial loss and the international cooperation — arrest in Ghana and extradition to the United States — that produced a prosecution and forfeiture order.
Original story: https://cyberscoop.com/ghanaian-national-sentenced-romance-scam/
