Bernard Oduro Takyi, a businessman, is being held by the police on suspicion of defrauding two individuals of $27,000 by claiming to be able to obtain USA visas for them.
Along with forging official letters from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, he is also suspected of forging stamps from South Africa and Singapore in their passports.
It has been reported that Takyi conned two people: Prince Kofi Osei, an employee of the Electricity Company of Ghana, and one Gabriel Kwame Ntim, a technician.
They sent Takyi $13,000 and $14,000, respectively, totaling $27,000, and informed Takyi Oduro that they wished to travel to the United States.
Takyi allegedly prepared fictitious passport stamps and letters from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to increase their chances of getting the visas.
The defendants reportedly exploited the victims’ permission to fabricate embarkation and disembarkation stamps in their passports from a number of places, including Singapore, South Africa, Mauritius, and Turkey.
The victims received visas after he forwarded these documents to the US Embassy in Madagascar.
According to Ghana’s Industrial Development and Investment Fund (IDIF) policy, the fictitious letter from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) introduced Gabriel Kwame Ntim, one of the complainants, as a key partner for potential investors.
Takyi also faces charges of forging a second KMA letter in which he portrays Prince Kofi Osei, the second complainant, as a “Metro Climate Management officer.”
But the visas were canceled by the embassy when it discovered they were false.
Three counts of forging official documents and two counts of defrauding under false pretenses are the legal charges brought against the accused. To be innocent is Oduro Takyi’s request.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Maxwell Oppong fiercely contested the accused’s bail during the proceedings in the courtroom presided over by Justice Samuel Acquah on behalf of the prosecution.
