ALEXANDRIA, Va. (DC News Now) — A Ghanaian national will sit in prison for two years after posing as a woman online and receiving about $750,000 while engaging in a fake relationship.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia (USAO) said Emmanuel Gyasi and his co-conspirator ran a “romance scheme” to induce a victim online to send wire transfers.
Court documents revealed that from March 2022 until at least July 2022, the 29-year-old created a fake online dating profile under the name “Jessica Morris.” He then used the profile to start a romantic relationship.
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Gyasi and his co-conspirator told the victim that he had inherited gold bars worth $12 million and that he needed money to pay for fees related to selling the bars. The pair then introduced the victim to a second fake persona, “Steven Baggett,” who posed as Morris’s, aka Gyasi’s, lawyer…