ECONOMIC AND ORGANISED CRIME OFFICE – EOCO (GHANA)/ NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY – NCA (UK) ECONOMIC AND ORGANISED CRIME OFFICE – EOCO (GHANA)/ NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY – NCA (UK) JOINT SIMULTANEOUS OPERATION | Economic And Organised Crime Office

ECONOMIC AND ORGANISED CRIME OFFICE – EOCO (GHANA)/ NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY – NCA (UK) ECONOMIC AND ORGANISED CRIME OFFICE – EOCO (GHANA)/ NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY – NCA (UK) JOINT SIMULTANEOUS OPERATION

A special operation code-named “OPERATION GRATEFUL”, is a collaborative investigation between Ghanaian Security Agencies (namely EOCO, BNI, NACOB, POLICE) and UK’s NCA into large scale romance scam/fraud and the resultant Trade Based Money Laundering (TBML) with the exploitation of victims’ details carried out both in and outside Ghana.

Following an investigation into Trade Based Money Laundering (TBML) in UK and GHANA, the National Crime Agency (NCA) in UK commenced an investigation into the Money Laundering and Romance Fraud.

So far, the investigations has uncovered that over sixteen (16) persons have fallen victim to this fraud from which Five Million Pounds Sterling (£5 Million) has been identified as stolen from victims in the UK. This amount has been transferred from UK and found their way through certain accounts in some banks in Ghana. Currently those monies have been withdrawn from the accounts.

Romance Scam is a particular dangerous and vicious form of mass market fraud because it targets not only the victim assets, but also abuses them emotionally. It leaves the victim embarrassed, traumatised and financially ruined for life.

Trade Based Money Laundering is exploiting legitimate businesses to launder proceeds of crime. Within this investigation the use of second-hand clothing/textile business has been applied to launder the proceeds of the identified romance fraud.

The Ghanaian security agencies were alerted by our counterparts in the UK and we in Ghana also commenced investigations into this fraud about a year ago.

As I speak today, a joint simultaneous operation to arrest and search premises here and in the UK have been undertaken. A certain OPOKU AGYEMANG has been arrested in the UK. This investigation led by EOCO together with officers from NACOB, BNI, POLICE and UK Law Enforcement officers has resulted in the arrest of two (2) suspects in Accra believed to be involved in high end money laundering. The suspects are:

MORO MUSAH
SABINA ADZRE

This is complex organised financial crime and investigations is ongoing.