March 29th 2023.
A Massachusetts native has been sentenced to a 4 1/2 year prison sentence after being convicted of stealing $8 million from online daters. Kofi Osei, 30, had admitted to transferring $4 million of the stolen funds to his own accounts. To deceive his victims, Osei would create false dating profiles and concoct stories of oil rig explosions and being detained in foreign jails. From 2016 to 2020, Osei and his accomplices targeted elderly individuals who were tricked into transferring money to various shady bank accounts opened with counterfeit passports and aliases.
The money was withdrawn and in some cases used to purchase vehicles which were then sent to Nigeria and sold. One Florida woman gave Osei $200,000, believing he required the funds for his release following an explosion on his oil rig. Meanwhile, another female victim was left “financially and emotionally devastated” after sending Osei $65,000 for supposed employees injured in an accident at his overseas worksite.
Osei was known to go by several aliases, such as Paul Proia, Kenneth Buck, Jeffrey Anashe, Author Ivey, David Label, Manuel Abdalla, and Andrew Matses. Osei had legally moved to the United States to become a professional soccer player, however, in February 2021, he was apprehended and pleaded guilty in September to making a false statement to a bank, wire fraud, and money laundering. In addition to the 4 1/2-year prison sentence, Osei is obligated to pay a restitution and forfeiture of $4,122,558. His legal team has argued that he is a contrite father with no prior criminal record who made “a poor and misguided decision.”
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