Ohio’s own Tinder Swindler?: Man sentenced for role in $2 million romance fraud scheme

For his part in a romance scam that caused over $2 million in losses to dozens of victims, a 41-year-old Cincinnati man was sentenced in U.S. District Court on March 10 to 41 months in prison. 

Richard Opoku Agyemang has also been ordered to pay nearly $1.4 million in restitution to the victims who could be identified—as well as a little over $20,000 in restitution to the Small Business Administration for the loan he fraudulently obtained for relief funds during the COVID-19 pandemic—according to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. 

The scheme involved a network of people who would set up profiles on dating websites using stolen photographs and fake information, start online romantic relationships with the victims, and trick them into sending money under false pretenses, claiming the money was for things like medical expenses. 

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Over $2 million was sent by the victims and deposited to accounts controlled by Agyemang, who laundered the fraud proceeds to individuals in the U.S. and abroad.  

The victims of this scheme were elderly or recently bereaved people, according to the release, and due to their financial loss from the scam, they had to max out credit cards, sell their homes and cars, and cash out 401(k) accounts and life insurance policies. 

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