Two Ghanaian men sentenced in the US over mail fraud and identity theft
According to a US Justice Department statement, both were initially indicted in November of 2017 but were sentenced last Friday to 99 months and three days in prison, respectively, which is then to be followed by a three-year supervised sentence.
Two Ghanaian men, Nana Mensah and Shaderick Jojo Opare have been sentenced in the US for their involvement in an international fraud scheme.
According to a US Justice Department statement, both were initially indicted in November of 2017 but were sentenced last Friday to 99 months and three days in prison, respectively, which is then to be followed by a three-year supervised sentence.
Nana Mensah was convicted on 15 counts of mail fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft. Jojo Opare on the other hand was convicted of a conspiracy to commit mail fraud, the statement said.
"According to the United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Mensah and Opare was involved in an international scheme in which co-conspirators, often located in Ghana, would steal victims’ identity in order to open Sprint cell phone accounts. As part of opening the new accounts, the co-conspirators would order new cell phones and have them delivered to vacant homes where they would be picked up by other co-conspirators and eventually resold," it further added.
The scheme is said to have involved more than 270 packages containing over 830 cell phones that were valued at over $595,000.
"The conspiracy took advantage of over 240 identity theft victims."
They have also been ordered to pay restitution of $357,565.92 and $185,272 to Sprint Inc, a mobile network operator.
