Aide of US Congressman arrested in Ghana

A former aide to Michigan Congressman John Conyers Jr. was arrested in Ghana on Friday, eight months after he failed to show up for sentencing on charges of defrauding sponsors and vendors of a national conference for black farmers of more than $150,000 in 1999.

FBI spokeswoman Dawn Clenney said Dewayne Boyd, 49, of Detroit, was arrested by Ghanaian police on Friday.

She said Boyd was returned Sunday to New York, where he was to appear today in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn for a hearing to determine whether he will be returned to Michigan.

Boyd was convicted by a federal court jury in December 2004 of seven counts of fraud in the scam he ran while working for Conyers, a Michigan Democrat. There was no evidence that Conyers, D-Mich., was aware of the scam. Conyers fired Boyd in 2002.