Two Ghanaian brothers and US woman indicted in romance fraud ring targeting elderly

Two brothers from Ghana and a woman from the United States face federal charges for their alleged participation in a romance fraud network that preyed on elderly victims across the country.

Michael Nii Armah, Prince Nii Armah Kpobi, and Tawana C. Edwards were indicted May 14, 2026, in US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, according to a Department of Justice release. The indictment alleges the trio devised schemes in which perpetrators created fictitious online romantic relationships to convince victims, primarily elderly Americans, to send money.

The scope of the alleged activity centers on elderly victims in the United States. Romance fraud operations of this type routinely extract hundreds of thousands of dollars per victim through wire transfers, gift cards, and cryptocurrency; the precise loss amount tied to these defendants was not disclosed in the charging document.

The network operated by directing funds from US accounts to recipients in Ghana and elsewhere.

The indictment shifts the cases from investigative stage to criminal prosecution under statutes covering wire fraud and conspiracy. Arraignment and trial deadlines now begin in the Northern District of Ohio. Conviction on the lead counts carries mandatory restitution obligations and forfeiture of any proceeds or property traceable to the fraud.

Downstream, the Justice Department must disclose Brady material and proceed to discovery, while defendants gain the right to challenge venue and evidence obtained from US financial institutions and social media platforms. The case activates parallel forfeiture actions that require banks and payment processors holding suspected proceeds to freeze accounts upon receipt of seizure warrants.

It also requires the US Attorney’s Office to coordinate with Ghanaian authorities on extradition or mutual legal assistance if the brothers remain abroad. Similar indictments routinely prompt financial regulators to issue alerts to banks about transaction patterns linked to West African romance fraud.

This indictment forms part of the Justice Department’s ongoing enforcement against romance fraud networks originating in Ghana and Nigeria. The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio has brought multiple such cases in recent years targeting both overseas organizers and their US-based facilitators.