A U.S. court sentenced Derrick Van Yeboah to federal prison after finding he played a central role in an international network that stole and laundered more than $100 million through romance scams and business email fraud.
Derrick Van Yeboah, a/k/a “Van,” 41, was sentenced to 85 months in prison and ordered to pay $10,149,429.17 in forfeiture, along with two years of supervised release. The penalties follow his admission of involvement in an organized scheme that targeted Americans with fake romantic relationships and fraudulent business communications. The case ties a sequence of long-running online deceptions to a coordinated criminal enterprise based primarily in West Africa.
On March 5, 2026, Van Yeboah pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who imposed the sentence. The plea and sentence formalize years of investigation into networks that created false personas and manipulated victims into wiring millions of dollars. The government’s filings link the group’s techniques across both interpersonal scams and corporate-targeted fraud.
“Romance scammers do not simply steal money—they weaponize trust,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Van Yeboah and his co-conspirators exploited trust, loneliness, and legitimate business relationships to steal more than $100 million. Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of these calculated frauds and our commitment to pursuing international criminal organizations that target Americans.”
Court documents describe a criminal organization that used romance scams and business email compromise schemes to defraud individuals and businesses across the United States. Many victims were older, vulnerable people who were led to believe they were in genuine online relationships with real partners. Once trust was established, the conspirators convinced victims to send money or to participate in laundering transactions that masked the true destination of stolen funds.
The scheme also used business email compromise techniques to trick companies into wiring funds to accounts controlled by the enterprise, blending interpersonal deception with corporate fraud. In total, prosecutors say the conspiracy stole and laundered more than $100 million from dozens of victims and entities. After the funds were collected, a portion of the proceeds was routed to accounts in West Africa as part of the laundering effort.
Van Yeboah is accused of personally carrying out numerous romance scams by assuming fake identities and communicating with victims to extract money. Examples cited by prosecutors include a 2019–2020 operation in which he posed as romantic partners to induce an Ohio woman and a Delaware woman to transfer approximately $4.2 million to accounts tied to the conspiracy. In a separate 2024 incident, he allegedly convinced a North Carolina man to send about $123,000 by claiming he needed funds for a parent’s funeral and to recover gold and diamonds from Italy.
Prosecutors hold Van Yeboah responsible for more than $10 million in direct transfers tied to his own romantic frauds, a subset of the broader conspiracy’s haul. Law enforcement agencies coordinated internationally to bring him to the United States, and the case highlights how cross-border cooperation is required to disrupt these networks. The Justice Department and federal investigators mapped financial trails that crossed multiple countries and payment systems.
The extradition that put Van Yeboah in U.S. custody took place on August 7, 2025, after cooperation between U.S. officials and Ghanaian authorities. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the International Cooperation Unit of the Office of the Attorney-General of Ghana were involved, along with Ghana’s Economic and Organized Crime Office, the Ghana Police Service – INTERPOL, Ghana’s Cyber Security Authority, and Ghana’s National Intelligence Bureau. The FBI led investigative work stateside while partner agencies handled key steps overseas to secure transfer and evidence.
The prosecution was handled by the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin Mead and Mitzi Steiner directing the case. The sentence imposed by Judge Arun Subramanian reflects both the scope of the losses and the coordinated nature of the criminal organization. The record in court lays out a pattern of calculated deception that combined emotional manipulation with financial fraud techniques to target a large number of victims.
