The son of a former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and former Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, has been sentenced by an American court to two-years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
The 32-year-old Abdul Inusah was sentenced after having been found guilty for his role in a Huntington-based scheme that defrauded individuals in multiple states through the use of false online personas.
According to YouTuber Hello Frank, who broke the news on Saturday, July 8, 2023, Inusah was also ordered to pay $128,000 in restitution.
The details, culled from a statement from the US Attorney's Office Southern District of West Virginia, said that the trial was decided by a federal jury after three days in court.
The statement from the United State’s Attorney, dated Thursday, March 23, 2023, added that Abdul Inusah was found guilty for being part of a “conspiracy that targeted victims using false personas via email, text messaging, online dating websites and social media platforms.
“From at least January 2018 through at least December 2019, the scheme participants sought to induce victims into believing they were in a romantic relationship, friendship, or business relationship with the various false personas. The victims were persuaded to send money for a variety of false and fraudulent reasons for the benefit of the false personas.”
The statement also detailed the various amounts of monies that were involved in this case, plus some of the names of the victims.
It added that Inusah’s involvement was largely through a shell company that was set up in his name and used in the crimes.
“One false persona, ‘Miarama,’ was used to induce an Alabama resident into providing $106,000 via wire transfers and cashier’s checks. The amount included $48,000 to pay overdue taxes on a nonexistent gold inheritance in Ghana and $21,000 wired to Bitsav Supply LLC, a shell company set up by Inusah. Another false persona, ‘Grace,’ persuaded a Washington resident to wire funds so ‘Grace’ could maintain her South African cocoa plantation and move to the United States to marry the victim. Other victims of the false personas included residents of Ohio and Florida.
“The federal jury found Inusah guilty of receipt of stolen money, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts of wire fraud on August 12, 2022. Perhaps more than others involved, Abdul Inusah understood the scope of the criminal conspiracy and that it was exploiting innocent and often vulnerable victims,” the United States Attorney Will Thompson is reported to have said.
Abdul Inusah is also said to have engaged others in the romance scheme, making efforts to conceal his own involvement in the fraud.
Inusah Fuseini's son breaks silence after US fraud, allegations
On August 25, 2022, Abdul Inusah broken his silence after reports about his alleged involvement in money laundering and wire fraud in the United States of America emerged.
Speaking in an interview on Asaase Radio, embattled Abdul Inusah reiterated his father’s explanations following the reports.
According to him, he received details about the indictment, linking him with some indictments.
He first received an indictment filed on April 27, 2021, but he received same via text message in June of the same year.
He recounted that following this, he contacted his lawyers, who took it up, and the case proceeded. He was indicted on two counts – 20,000-dollar wire fraud and receipt of stolen money with regards to the said money.
“I was given a series of plea deals. I refused them because you only accept plea deals if you have committed a crime. Upon realisation that they had already apprehended nine people who were someway somehow linked to me because I had bought a few of them vehicles somewhere in 2018, while a student in the same university and they were also students, and that was in a different indictment.
“The only reason why I was not involved in that particular indictment was because there was nothing linking me to those people.
“I decided to opt for trial. I was superseded 3 times to where the count now became 8. I have seen 50 years, but I was offered a plea deal of 6 months jail time, but I still refused until it got to somewhere this month. We went for trial, which lasted for 4 or 5 days till the Jury came out with somewhat of a verdict pronouncing me not guilty for 3 to 4 charges of those counts and 4 charges they thought I was guilty of on those other counts.
“From there, obviously, the justice department would have come out with a communique talking about what happened in court during the trial. It was those that the Ghanaian media fetched its reports from,” he noted.
Abdul Inusah said he is innocent while expressing concern about how what he describes as ‘half-truths’ are circulating in reports and how it may have affected his family members and friends.
He believes the case has some prejudiced basis and that he will be released soon.
“…As to conviction or jail sentence or jail time, there’s nothing of the sort because there is still a chance for me to talk to the government as to whether I still want to pursue the case from different angles or just having a man-man talk with them with respect to giving them some information for lesser sentences. Me and my lawyers are still pursuing the case because we believe I’m innocent and this is just one of those prejudice cases that they must find a prosecution at all cost,” he noted.
“My utmost worry right now is not fighting my case or proving my innocence to the Ghanaian public,” Inusah said. “My very utmost problem right now will be my family and friends who have been affected by these half-truth publications, with utmost respect because I don’t want to discredit anybody’s work,” he said.
He added that his family should continue to have faith as he will soon be a free man since he is innocent.
“But these are half-truths, and people’s lives in Ghana are being affected, especially my family and loved ones, and I would like to apologise to them that they should take heart and keep having faith that their brother and son is innocent and will soon be a free man and we will rejoice and jubilate with the people of Ghana,” an optimistic Inusah to Asaaseradio.com.
The former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, and MP for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, also reacted to this development.
The former MP described the development as terrible while seeking to explain the details of what led to the incident.
Inusah Fuseini explained that his son’s documents were used by his colleague who had requested same for a transaction but unfortunately, it turned out he used it for romance fraud.
“As a father, my son told me that one of his colleagues wanted a car, and he has documents that allow him to auction vehicles, and it turns out the colleague was involved in a romance fraud,” the former legislator told Asaase radio com.
Abdul Inusah, however, explained that he had not been jailed as is being reported by some media houses. He is currently at home, and the case is still ongoing.
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