US prosecutors have alleged that Asante Akyem North MP Ohene Kwame Frimpong, popularly known as OK Frimpong, helped move more than $2 million in proceeds from an alleged romance scam through Chicago bank accounts and shell companies before funds were transferred to Ghana, China and India.
The allegations are contained in detailed US court filings forming part of an 18-count federal indictment against Frimpong and alleged co-conspirators, including Shadrack Yaw Gyasi and Martin Misinu.
According to the indictment, the alleged operation dates back to 2019 and involved six victims, identified in court documents only as Victims A through F. Prosecutors allege that the victims were targeted through fabricated online romantic relationships and persuaded to send large sums of money based on false stories involving inherited gold, diamonds, taxes and transfer fees.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is said to have begun examining Frimpong’s activities in 2019, with the investigation eventually leading to the federal indictment alleging wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.
One of the key accounts identified by prosecutors was allegedly opened by Frimpong on or about July 21, 2020, at GLCU in the name of New Grace Restaurants, a Chicago restaurant he had inherited from his parents.
Court documents allege that about a month later, on August 26, 2020, Frimpong and Gyasi caused Victim C to wire $515,000 in alleged fraud proceeds into the restaurant account.
On August 22, 2020, Frimpong and another alleged co-conspirator identified as “FA” also allegedly opened an account at USB in the name of Grace Restaurants Ltd, an Illinois-registered shell company. Prosecutors allege that on December 4, 2020, Victim F transferred $480,612 into the account.
Five days later, the indictment alleges, Frimpong and FA travelled to Chicago from outside the United States. The following day, they allegedly transferred $200,026.85 and $200,031.15 from the account to business bank accounts in China and India.
The filings describe an even larger series of transactions involving Victim C.
Prosecutors allege that between July 2019 and April 2022, the co-conspirators obtained more than $2 million from Victim C alone by allegedly posing as a romantic partner named “Juliana Alina”.
According to the indictment, “Juliana Alina” claimed that her father had owned a gold mine in Johannesburg and left her gold bars that she needed help selling.
On February 10, 2021, Frimpong allegedly travelled to Chicago with another co-conspirator, identified as “NF”. Prosecutors say NF opened a Chase Bank account in his or her own name, referred to in the filings as the JPMC Account, along with three additional accounts allegedly connected to the scheme.
Victim C allegedly transferred $250,000 on February 25, 2021, and another $250,000 on March 3, 2021, into the JPMC Account.
The indictment further alleges that Frimpong later directed NF to withdraw $30,000 in cash and purchase Apple products as gifts. Among the alleged purchases was an iPhone for Gyasi, with $5,875.20 spent at a Best Buy store using a card linked to the account.
Another alleged victim, Victim A, was reportedly defrauded through a similar arrangement.
In March 2021, Frimpong allegedly travelled to Chicago with a co-conspirator identified as “CA”, who prosecutors say opened Chase Bank accounts in the name of AJ Plums LLC, a shell entity.
Victim A allegedly transferred $250,000 in April 2021 and another $250,000 in May 2021, with portions of the money subsequently moved between accounts.
The indictment also details alleged transactions involving Victims D and E in 2022.
Prosecutors allege that a co-conspirator identified as “MFN” travelled from the Netherlands to Chicago in November 2021 and opened accounts at BMO Harris Bank and Bank of America in the name of a fictitious company, Allsop LLC.
Between March and April 2022, Victims D and E allegedly transferred a combined $663,929 into those accounts.
Frimpong allegedly directed MFN to transfer $167,210 from the proceeds to a Ghana-based bank account he controlled, according to the court documents.
The filings further allege that MFN falsely told a Bank of America branch that Victim D was her stepfather in an attempt to have a frozen account released.
Prosecutors say the alleged romance scams repeatedly relied on elaborate inheritance stories.
In Victim F’s case, the alleged persona was “Hannah Garvey”, who reportedly claimed she was moving from New York to London because of a $40 million to $50 million inheritance in gold and diamonds that required upfront payments.
The alleged story involving Victim C centred on the purported gold-mine inheritance in South Africa.
Frimpong has denied the romance-scam allegations, saying Interpol informed him only of a money-laundering charge before his arrest.
He was arrested in Amsterdam in May 2026 and is currently fighting extradition to the United States. The US Department of Justice has declined to comment on the case.
The allegations form the basis of wire fraud, bank fraud and money-laundering charges against Frimpong and his alleged co-conspirators. The case remains pending before US courts, and Frimpong is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
