By Elijah Koome
In a post shared on July 16, 2026, Yawa, an X account based in Ghana that mostly posts political content focused on West Africa, claimed that the US Attorney General said Ghana won’t extradite romance scammers without slave trade reparations. At the time of review, the post had been retweeted 100 times and bookmarked 135 times, showing substantial interest from X users.
Background
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), romance scammers create fake online profiles to gain the trust of people seeking relationships before inventing stories to convince them to send money. To avoid meeting in person, they often claim to work in the military or other professions that require them to be stationed far away or travel frequently.
Romance scams have become increasingly common in recent years, with victims around the world losing millions of dollars. In one case in early 2025, a French woman named Anne lost about €830,000 to scammers posing as actor Brad Pitt. Using AI-generated images, the fraudsters convinced her she was communicating with the real Pitt, who claimed he needed money for hospital bills because his assets were tied up in his divorce proceedings with Angelina Jolie. In a similar scheme, two Spanish women were defrauded of a combined US$576,000 by scammers impersonating the Hollywood actor. According to the FBI, romance scams cost victims more than US$1 billion in 2021 alone, with over 24,000 people reporting losses.
While romance scammers operate from many places, Nigeria and Ghana have become particularly well known for carrying out such schemes. According to a study of this phenomenon, many of these scammers are young, with more than 80% being under 26. Most of them also impersonate white males and target mostly female victims based in Western countries. Facebook is one of the main platforms they use to find their potential victims.
Verification
The most recent romance scamming case that has been in the headlines involves a Ghanaian man known as Frederick Kumi, alias Abu Trica. Kumi is accused of using fake identities to scam victims out of more than 8 million US dollars. Kumi was extradited to the US from Ghana on July 9, 2026. However, according to the BBC, his lawyer opposed the process, accusing the government of acting before waiting for the court’s verdict. In June 2025, another Ghanaian scammer known as Joseph Boateng was extradited to the US to face charges and has been going through the court process since then, with his sentencing scheduled for September 2026.
Separately, Todd Blanche, the acting Attorney General of the US who has been serving since April when his predecessor Pam Bondi was fired, was subjected to a Senate confirmation hearing on July 15, 2026. In the course of the hearing, Blanche answered a wide range of questions ranging from the Epstein files to his personal relationship with President Trump. However, as confirmed by the entire recording of the confirmation proceedings, at no point did Blanche discuss Ghana or the cases of romance scammers who are facing extradition to the US. In addition, the official website of the US Attorney General does not make any reference to Blanche’s comments about the matter.
The fact that several Ghanaian citizens have already been successfully extradited to the United States to face charges of obtaining money fraudulently through romance scams confirms that Ghana is actively cooperating with the US and does not demand reparations for the slave trade.
Verdict
The claim that the US Attorney General said Ghana won’t extradite romance scammers without slave trade reparations is FALSE.
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