John Ackah Blay-Miezah and his associates swindled many people [Image credit: Yepoka Yeebo's book]
In the early 1970’s, a Ghanaian conman gained international recognition for the wrong reasons. After having to pretend to be an ‘African prince’ seeking to study in Philadelphia-USA, John Ackah Blay-Miezah and his associates swindled millions of Americans seeking to cash in on his cautionary tale.
While claiming to be a close associate of Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Blay-Miezah told his investors [victims] about a fake Trust left in his possession by the late Pan African leader.
His elaborate scheme at first did not take off from the jump, as he would have to make his story very believable to his victims, while promising them huge returns on investments.
According to details of this ordeal captured in a book review of Yepoka Yeebo ‘ANANSI’S GOLD’, Blay-Miezah and his associate, Reverend Robert Ellis, established an office named the Bureau of African Affairs and Industrial Development, an import-export company designed to resemble an actual government agency.
It was from this office that the so-called ‘Oman Ghana Trust Fund’ was birthed, with investors seeking to cash in on hidden gold bars and huge sums of cash in the vaults of Swiss accounts which he [Blay-Miezah] claimed belonged to Dr. Nkrumah.
While there are no available records of Dr. Nkrumah ever meeting John Ackah Blay-Miezah, investors signed unto the fake Trust Fund.
Ranging from business owners, lawyers, college students and elderly widows, they were all promised lucrative contracts with the government of Ghana as part of conditions and benefits.
Reverend Ray Ellis [Blay-Miezah’s associate] told the investors that their investment would first go a long way to help Blay-Miezah clear the necessary stumbling blocks to bring the money home to Ghana after which they will recoup their investment in tenfold, and in some instances, even twenty fold.
While this cautionary tale was consumed by the investors, their initial payment date would pass and there was always an excuse and a promise of greater return and requests for more money from the victims.
"I think a lot of the people who ended up investing in the Oman Ghana Trust Fund did know about Ghana or West Africa... and initially it probably made perfect sense and dovetailed with what they'd heard."
"...But as they opened up to a wider and wider pool of investments, I think it was just something that sounded like a good bet to people, who were either feeling greedy or had the money to spare and didn't mind potentially losing it. Or people who really, really, desperately or optimistically wanted to do something with that money. I think it just sounded like a grand adventure that would make people a great deal of money and that would let them put their name in lights in this very specific way," the British-Ghanaian author said in the book.
In reality, the Oman Ghana Trust Fund never even existed and over a 15-year period, Blay-Miezah conducted these fake schemes, scamming many people amounting to millions.
His American partner [Reverend Ray Ellis], for instance, is said to have scammed at least 300 people for a total of $15 million.
Blay-Miezah, whose tricks had run out was on the police wanted list until he was arrested for several counts of wire fraud and the government of Ghana at the time, seemed willing to extradite him.
When he returned to Ghana, his bad deeds would follow up with him as one of his investors embarked on a mission to Accra, where he tried to personally choke Blay-Miezah to death in hopes of securing his investment back.
John Ackah Blay-Miezah died in 1992 while under house arrest for deceiving and embarrassing the government and even in death, he caused one final confusion among his own family members by convincing them that he had a non-existent $15 billion sitting in a bank abroad.
Reverend Robert Ellis ran the Philly operations out of offices with Blay-Miezah [Image credit: Yepoka Yeebo's book]
John Ackah Blay-Miezah and his associates [Image credit: Yepoka Yeebo's book]
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