Ghanaians are generally known to be peace-loving and law-abiding people who make their nation proud in various sectors worldwide.
Some have served and are still serving in high-ranking offices in foreign countries such as the United Kingdom(UK) and the United States of America(USA).
Others are also breaking academic records in various universities and excelling in their businesses and artistic endeavours.
One can say, in the popular term, that they are putting Ghana on the ‘map’.
In a departure from this, there are some Ghanaians who have equally placed the country on the negative side of the map.
The Ghana Report takes a trip down memory lane to look at some Ghanaians who were caught by the law abroad.
- Valerie Owusu and Emmanuel Addae
The Ghanaian couple has been sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for the murder of their five-year-old son.
Their sentence was delivered nearly three years after the two brutally beat and left the boy for dead on Long Island.
According to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, Valerie and Emmanuel beat King Owusu with at least four different instruments over three days in 2021.
The prosecutors added that neither of them called 911 or provided medical care when his situation deteriorated.
They continued by saying that they later sent the boy to a family member’s house.
The family member later returned home to find the boy dead.
The verdict was delivered on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, leaving Valarie in tears.
Despite expressing love for the child and pleading for leniency, acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski sentenced them to the maximum.
- Emmanuel Quamey
The 36-year-old Ghanaian living in the United States has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for receiving and laundering money obtained through romance scams.
According to court documents, Quamey and a network of co-conspirators received over US$3.8 million in fraud proceeds between September 2019 and March 2023.
The culprits used fake personas to express strong romantic interest in their targeted victims in order to trick them into sending money to them.
Quamey was responsible for receiving and laundering approximately US$3.3 million of the victims’ money that was wired into bank accounts he directly controlled.
In October 2023, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to receive stolen money for his role in the scheme.
As part of his sentence, Quamey was ordered to pay the victims US$3.3 million in forfeiture and US$3.8 million in restitution.
- Kenneth Baffour
The 21-year-old was arrested on May 11, 2023, in connection with the death of a 53-year-old man in north Columbus.
Before his arrest, a cash reward was offered to any member of the public with any information on him. He subsequently surrendered himself to the police and was detained.
Police detectives alleged that Baffour shot Romero-Gutierrez during a verbal altercation on April 29, 2023, and escaped from the scene in a car driven by his friend.
Kenneth and his friend, Joseph Mansaray, were charged with murder and are on trial.
- Mona Faiz Montrage
Mona Faiz Montrage, better known as Hajia4Real, was found guilty of laundering funds derived from a sequence of romance scams.
She entered a guilty plea in February this year to conspiracy to receive stolen money in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave.
The 31-year-old socialite from Ghana confessed to a single count of conspiring to receive stolen money, an offence that carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.
In addition, Montrage consented to forfeit and provide restitution of the same amount, totalling $2,164,758.41.
Documents released by the United States Attorney’s Office (Southern District of New York) announced a six-count indictment charging Mona Faiz Montrage for her role in a series of romance schemes and for laundering the proceeds of those schemes.
She was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy, and one count of money laundering, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
- Abdul Fuseini
Abdul Inusah, the son of former Tamale Central MP Inusah Fuseini, was also charged with fraud and money laundering in the United States in August 2022.
According to a statement issued by the US Department of Justice, the 31-year-old was part of a conspiracy that targeted victims using false personas via email, text messaging, online dating, and social media websites.
A jury found Inusah guilty of receipt of stolen money, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts of wire fraud.
The wire fraud counts involved a pair of $2,000 Zelle wire transfers to Inusah from the money obtained using a false persona in January 2019.
He denied the charges and said it was a conspiracy against him.
According to his father, his son’s documents were used to perpetrate a crime, resulting in the charges.
- Eric Amoateng
The former Member of Parliament for Nkoranza North was arrested in the USA on December 11, 2005, for the possession of heroin valued at $6 million.
He was tried, convicted, and subsequently sentenced to a 10-year prison term, which he served in a US prison.
Mr. Amoateng was released on July 30, 2014, after the completion of his sentence.
- Daasebre Gyamenah
The late Ghanaian musician, who was popular for hits like Kokooko, was arrested on arrival at Heathrow Airport in 2006 after two kilogrammes of cocaine were found in his luggage.
The substance was valued at about £100,000.
He had claimed he had no clue how the narcotic drugs ended up in his luggage as he was only in London to work on his music.
Daasebre spent 11 months in a UK jail pending the trial.
However, he was never convicted of the crime due to facts suggesting he did not know of the existence of the drugs.
In 2007, he was released from jail after a jury returned a not-guilty verdict in his case.
- Ruby Nayele Ametefe
Ruby Nayele Ametefe was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison by the Isleworth Crown Court in the UK in January 2015.
She was arrested on November 10, 2014, at Heathrow Airport after attempting to enter the UK with cocaine in her hand luggage.
Two accomplices, Nana Akua Amponsah and Sadalia Sandra Nuhu, reportedly travelled with Nayele but absconded after the police in the UK nabbed the latter.
The two fugitives were later arrested in Ghana.
Also, three public officials were charged with abetment of crime and exportation of narcotic drugs.
Nayele was subsequently charged with Class A drug trafficking and was arraigned before the court.
However, she served three out of the eight-and-a-half-year term before she was released.
- Deeba
Popular hiplife musician Richard Nimo, also known as Deeba, was arrested by INTERPOL Ghana in January 2013 for defiling his 8-year-old stepchild in the United Kingdom.
Deeba had fled the UK for Ghana five years before the arrest after his daughter’s complaints against him led to the launching of a police investigation.
British police alerted Interpol that Deeba should be arrested and extradited to the UK.
However, his arrest was full of drama because of the involvement of ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Arabian friend, Sheikh Ibn Abu Talib.
Deeba was invited to a 5-star hotel in Accra under the pretext of attending a music audition for already established music stars willing to revive their ambitions.
When he was doing a freestyle on his famous ‘Deeba’ track, the INTERPOL officers came in to arrest him.
He was extradited to the UK to face trial.