The United States has arrested six alleged members of an international fraud and money-laundering ring that deployed spoofing, catfishing, and COVID-19 relief scams to con victims out of $55m.
The defendants are accused of creating fake identities to trick companies, the Small Business Administration (SBA), and old folks searching for romance online into wiring funds to bank accounts controlled by a criminal enterprise.
Thirty-five-year-old Farouk Appiedu was arrested on October 18 in Queens, New York. His alleged co-conspirator 24-year-old Sadick Edusei Kissi was arrested on February 5 in Fargo, North Dakota. The four remaining defendants—Celvin Freeman, 37, Faisal Ali, 34, Fred Asante, 35, and Lord Aning, 28—were all arrested on February 17; Freeman and Ali in New Jersey, and Asante and Aning in Alexandria, Virginia.