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SDNY COURTHOUSE, Feb 17 – In an alleged fraud conspiracy stretching from Ghana through The Bronx to North Dakota, on February 17 Federal prosecutors announced announced the arrests of FAROUK APPIEDU, FRED ASANTE, CELVIN FREEMAN, LORD ANING, SADICK EDUSEI KISSI, and FAISAL ALI, a/k/a “Clarence Graveley,” for charges in connection with their roles in a fraud and money laundering conspiracy based in the Republic of Ghana involving the theft of tens of millions of dollars. 

   FREEMAN and ALI were arrested earlier on February 17 in New Jersey and were set to be presented in Manhattan federal court later in the day. 

    While no time was given, Inner City Press covered it to the point of inquiries about immigration lawyers and transfer to Essex County Correctional Facility in New Jersey. Criminal complaint on Patreon here.

ASANTE and ANING were arrested in Virginia, to be presented in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, Virginia.  APPIEDU was previously arrested in Queens, New York on October 18, 2020.  KISSI was previously arrested in Fargo, North Dakota on February 5, 2020.             

     According to allegations in the indictments filed against APPIEDU, ASANTE, FREEMAN, ANING, and KISSI, a criminal complaint filed against ALI, and other court documents:  From at least in or about 2013 through at least in or about 2020, the defendants were members of a criminal enterprise based in Ghana that committed a series of business email compromises and romance scams against individuals and businesses located across the United States, including in the Southern District of New York.  The frauds perpetrated by the Enterprise have consisted of, among other frauds, business email compromises, romance scams, and fraud schemes related to the novel coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic.  First, the objective of the Enterprise’s business email compromise fraud scheme was to trick and deceive businesses into wiring funds into accounts controlled by the Enterprise through the use of email accounts that “spoofed” or impersonated employees of a victim company or third parties engaged in business with a victim company.  Second, the Enterprise conducted the romance scams by using electronic messages sent via email, text messaging, or online dating websites that deluded victims, many of whom were vulnerable older men and women who lived alone, into believing the victim was in a romantic relationship with a fake identity assumed by members of the Enterprise.  Once members of the Enterprise had gained the trust of the victims using the fake identity, they used false pretenses to cause the victims to wire money to bank accounts the victims believed were controlled by their romantic interests, when in fact the bank accounts were controlled by members of the Enterprise.  Finally, the Enterprise submitted fraudulent loan applications through a loan program of the United States Small Business Administration  designed to provide relief to small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”) Program. 

The Enterprise submitted fraudulent EIDL applications in the names of actual companies to the SBA and when an EIDL loan was approved, the funds were ultimately deposited in bank accounts controlled by members of the Enterprise, including certain of the defendants.                  APPIEDU, ASANTE, FREEMAN, and ANING received fraud proceeds from victims of the Enterprise in dozens of business bank accounts that they controlled in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia.  The business bank accounts were opened in the names of companies formed by the defendants that were purportedly involved in, among other things, automobile sales, food imports and exports, and freight trucking and shipping. 

Once APPIEDU, ASANTE, FREEMAN, and ANING received fraud proceeds in bank accounts under their control, they withdrew, transported, and laundered those fraud proceeds to other members of the Enterprise abroad.  The defendants primarily laundered the fraud proceeds through their businesses by using the proceeds to purchase automobiles, food products, and other goods from U.S.-based suppliers and distributors of such products and shipping those products to Ghana and elsewhere.  The defendants’ transactions had the appearance of legitimate business transactions when, in fact, the products had been purchased using the proceeds of fraud schemes.  This trade-based money laundering scheme was designed to obscure the origin of the fraud proceeds as well as the identity of the ultimate beneficiaries of these schemes.              

   Collectively, from in or about 2013 through at least in or about 2020, APPIEDU, ASANTE, FREEMAN, and ANING controlled more than 45 bank accounts that had deposits that totaled over approximately $55 million during that time period.  A vast majority of the deposits consisted of large wire transfers and check or cash deposits from various U.S.-based individuals and entities that were victims of fraud schemes of the Enterprise, or payments for vehicles, food products, and other goods sold by the defendants that were purchased using fraud proceeds.  As part of the investigation of APPIEDU, the Government has seized and is seeking the forfeiture of four luxury cars purchased, at least in part, with fraud proceeds, including two 2019 Rolls Royce Cullinans, a 2020 Bentley Continental GT, and one 2020 Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG.          

        KISSI received fraud proceeds from victims of the Enterprise in bank accounts that he controlled that were located in the Bronx, New York and elsewhere.  Once he received the fraud proceeds in bank accounts under his control, KISSI withdrew, transported, and laundered those fraud proceeds to other members of the Enterprise located in Ghana.                  ALI received fraud proceeds from victims of the Enterprise into a series of at least thirteen bank accounts at six different banks, which ALI controlled in the Bronx, New York.  ALI used the name and identity of another person to open several of these bank accounts in order to conceal the proceeds of the fraud scheme.  Once ALI received the fraud proceeds in bank accounts under his control, he withdrew, transported, and laundered those fraud proceeds to other members of the Enterprise.             

  FAROUK APPIEDU, 35, of the Bronx, New York, FRED ASANTE, 35, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, CELVIN FREEMAN, 47, of East Orange, New Jersey, and LORD ANING, 28, of Woodbridge, Virginia, were each charged in Indictment No. 21 Cr. 88 with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of conspiracy to receive stolen money, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; and one count of receipt of stolen money, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.  The case against APPIEDU, ASANTE, FREEMAN, and ANING is assigned to U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff.

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