Accra, Dec. 18, – Online investigations conducted by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) into fraudulent internet-based investment schemes have resulted in the recovery of proceeds of crime totalling about US$15 million.
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Dominic Akuritenga Ayine, disclosed this on Thursday during his presentation at the Government’s Accountability Series held at the Presidency in Accra.
He said that around 2019, a transnational criminal network, made up largely of Chinese and Malaysian nationals, targeted both Ghanaian and British victims through e-commerce platforms and online investment scams.
Dr. Ayine explained that the syndicate incorporated a Ghanaian company in 2019 to serve as a front for its illicit activities. Official records obtained by EOCO indicated that the company’s registered business included “general trading and online trading and marketing.”
Outlining how the fraud was perpetrated, he stated that victims were first required to pay a registration fee to purchase products via the company’s e-commerce website. After signing up, they were persuaded to buy investment packages ranging from GH¢770 to GH¢9,240.
The criminals designed attractive promotional materials and categorised the packages into VIP1, VIP2, VIP3, VIP4, and VIP5. Victims were assured of significant financial returns through the operation of trading accounts and ownership of online shops for the sale of products on the platform.
As is typical of Ponzi schemes, participants were further encouraged to recruit new victims through referral and networking arrangements. The Attorney-General noted that package purchases could also be made using virtual currencies, with payments received in Ghana via mobile money, cash, or cryptocurrency wallets.
He added that the fraudsters produced instructional videos demonstrating how to make payments with virtual assets. These videos later proved useful to EOCO in tracing the crypto wallets through which the illicit proceeds were laundered.
Using advanced investigative tools such as Chainalysis Reactor, EOCO was able to track cryptocurrency transactions on the blockchain and identify transfers made into wallets associated with the criminal network.
Investigations further revealed that the wallets were hosted on OKX, a crypto exchange platform based in Seychelles. OKX’s internal reviews also suggested fraudulent activity, as more than a thousand transactions appeared to originate from the same IP address and location, pointing to a single operator.
EOCO subsequently obtained Know Your Customer (KYC) information from OKX, identifying the wallet holder as a Chinese national resident in Ghana and employed by the same company used to perpetrate the fraud. Ghanaian victims also identified him as the one who directly received payments from them.
After obtaining this evidence, EOCO froze the tainted wallets and served a formal freezing order on OKX. The suspects later sent representatives to inquire about the action taken against the wallets, and were informed of the reasons and invited to Ghana for further investigation.
During the probe, the company involved in the scam ceased operations and effectively vanished. With limited cooperation from Asian authorities, EOCO sought assistance from the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA-UK) and engaged Comply Crypto Depository, a UK-based crypto asset management firm, to help transfer virtual assets from four seized wallets to Zodiac Custody, a virtual asset custodian.
Zodiac Custody subsequently collaborated with EOCO to hold the assets, convert them into fiat currency, and transfer the proceeds into a bank account under EOCO’s control. A High Court order, granted on May 27, directed OKX to transfer all relevant crypto assets to Zodiac, and instructed Zodiac to liquidate them and pay the US dollar equivalent into EOCO’s Exhibit Account.
The court further ordered that the recovered funds be used to compensate victims of the crime.
Through this coordinated approach, Dr. Ayine said EOCO successfully applied Ghana’s domestic laws to freeze and recover virtual assets located outside the country. He reported that on November 19, Zodiac Custody converted the crypto assets and transferred US$15,191,730.13 into EOCO’s Exhibit Account.
He commended Mr. Raymond Archer, Executive Director of EOCO, for his leadership in achieving this milestone in law enforcement and anti-corruption efforts.
GHBUSS
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