A Fort Liberty soldier has been sentenced to 40 months in federal jail after pleading responsible to 3 counts of cash laundering associated to “an elaborate sequence of romance scams,” in response to federal authorities.
Specialist Sanda G. Frimpong, who was serving on energetic responsibility till his arrest in 2023, was ordered to pay again over $350,000 to victims he and others manipulated. Frimpong posed as a romantic suitor to earn his victims’ belief and subsequently bilked them out of hundreds of {dollars}, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Japanese District of North Carolina stated in a press launch Thursday.
“Frimpong and different conspirators engaged in elaborate scams, impersonating romantic love pursuits, diplomats, customs personnel, navy personnel, and different fictitious personas,” the press launch learn.
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Frimpong pleaded responsible to 3 counts of cash laundering on Sept. 14.
Frimpong served as an Army specialist, in response to the indictment. He immigrated to the U.S. from the Republic of Ghana in 2015 utilizing a Okay-1 fiancé visa, divorced the sponsor in 2018 and was naturalized as a citizen shortly thereafter.
He laundered the cash from his victims usually with the assistance of contacts in Ghana, in response to the press launch.
In a single instance included within the indictment, Frimpong posed as a girl in 2020 to focus on a New York-based widower. He claimed to have been detained by a Canadian customs officer named “Sanda Frimpong,” and requested the widower to ship a complete of $7,400 to assist him escape detention, and to assist him transfer bars of gold out of Canada.
In one other instance, Frimpong posed in 2021 as a soldier deployed to Afghanistan and satisfied a divorcee to ship him $100,000 to pay for journey bills and customs charges for shifting gold and diamonds. After receiving the funds, Frimpong transferred the cash to 2 financial institution accounts based mostly in Ghana.
Individually, Frimpong and Ghana-based contacts used stolen U.S. identities to submit fraudulent functions for unemployment advantages and advantages associated to the Coronavirus Help, Reduction, and Financial Safety (CARES) Act in 2020.
West Africa, the place Ghana is situated, is a recognized supply for love scams. A 2023 Interpol investigation within the area culminated in 100 arrests and greater than two million euros seized.
The Federal Commerce Fee stated almost 70,000 People reported romantic fraud in 2022 — with private monetary losses reaching $1.3 billion.
Army romance scams should not unusual, although often scams contain non-military culprits posing as service members in hopes of extra simply garnering sympathy from victims who assist troops. Troops can even grow to be victims by having their images utilized by scammers.
In 2022, a Texas man was arrested for scamming victims out of virtually $1 million by posing as an Army normal.
“Romance scammers exploit our most weak residents, even our seniors and navy veterans, typically leaving them financially and emotionally devastated,” U.S. Lawyer Michael Easley stated within the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace press launch Thursday. “The truth that an Army service member was concerned in romance scams whereas serving as a soldier is appalling.”
— Kelsey Baker is a graduate scholar at Northwestern’s Medill Faculty of Journalism, and a former active-duty Marine. Attain her on X at @KelsBBaker or bakerkelsey@protonmail.com.
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