Ghana man busted for fraud

Syracuse, NY -- Suspicions about too many packages being sent to and from a Syracuse address, tipped off federal and Syracuse officials to a scam that lead to fraud charges against a Ghana man.

Syracuse police Friday accused Edmund A. Agbodjan, 28, also known as Ed Kofi, of Knightdale, N.C., of a felony scheme to defraud and grand larceny charges after an investigation sparked when the United Parcel Service noticed too many packages being received and sent from a city home.

Agbodjan is being held in the Onondaga County Justice Center without bail for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and on $200,000 bond or $100,000 bail for the Syracuse police charges.

Here’s what Syracuse police records say happened.

The United Parcel Service notified U.S. Postal Service inspectors that a home on Carbon Street in Syracuse had received numerous packages addressed to various names, and had reshipped the packages to the Toronto, Canada area.

Postal inspectors suspected the activity was part of a reshipping scheme in which criminals buy merchandise with stolen credit card information. The merchandise is shipped to one location, and then reshipped elsewhere to cover up the scheme.

On Feb. 14, the U.S. Secret Service contacted Syracuse police about the numerous packages being shipped to and from 250 Carbon St. Police met with a mother and daughter who live at the address. The mother told police she had met Ed Kofi, later identified as Agbodjan, on an online message board, and had visited him in Toronto for the weekend. Agbodjan told the woman that he was a businessman and asked her to reship packages, presumably to save on shipping costs. He would send her shipping labels and information about where the packages were to be shipped. In return, the woman said she was allowed to keep some of the merchandise in the packages, which included a television, surround system, laptop computer and a wireless printer.

During the investigation, the woman told police she had items waiting to be shipped. They included four car engines on pallets, a large generator on a pallet, two water cooler machines, clothing, a range hood microwave, and boxes of men’s health care products.

She also allowed police access to her computer, which contained emails from Agbodjan, and agreed not to contact him.

On Feb. 25, the woman called Syracuse police to say that Agbodjan was at a DeWitt hotel. He was taken into custody, charged and sent to the justice center. Agbodjan told the woman that he had forgotten his wallet, and that it was being shipped to the Carbon Street address for him. When the wallet, shipped from another woman in Rockford, Ill., arrived it contained his Ontario driver’s license and a Massachusetts liquor identification in another man’s name.