"Dada Joe Remix": a decade of romance and inheritance fraud, and an extradition request
A grand jury indictment unsealed in Arizona in May 2025 charged Joseph Kwadwo Badu Boateng, a Ghanaian citizen known as "Dada Joe Remix", with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors allege that from at least 2013 through March 2023 he and co-conspirators ran a romance and inheritance scheme against elderly American victims and others worldwide, telling them gold and jewels were waiting to be released once taxes and fees were paid. Ghanaian authorities arrested him in late May 2025 at the request of the United States, he was extradited in June 2025, and in June 2026 he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and agreed to pay about $4.4 million in restitution. Sentencing had been set for 8 September 2026.
- Year
- 2026
- Where
- Ghana, United States
- Outcome
- Convicted
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Romance scams, Advance fee and 419 scams, Prize, lottery and sweepstakes scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-10
The facts, as recorded
- Indictment unsealed 30 May 2025 in the US District Court for the District of Arizona.
- Charges: conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
- The alleged conduct runs from at least 2013 through March 2023, roughly a decade.
- The scheme is described as romance and inheritance fraud targeting elderly American victims and others around the world.
- Co-conspirators allegedly represented that they held gold and jewels which could be released only once taxes, fees or other costs were paid.
- Ghanaian authorities arrested Boateng at the end of May 2025 pursuant to a US extradition request; the District of Arizona dates the arrest to 27 May 2025, while the Justice Department's June 2025 summary gave 28 May.
- Investigated by the FBI.
- The US Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona states the grand jury in Tucson indicted Boateng in May 2023 with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, and that he was arrested in Ghana on an extradition warrant on 27 May 2025.
- Boateng was extradited to the United States on 26 June 2025 and made his initial appearance in the District of Arizona on 1 July 2025.
- In the week before 30 June 2026 Boateng pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a felony; the release does not say whether the money laundering conspiracy charge was resolved.
- In his plea agreement Boateng admitted that he and co-conspirators ran a romance and inheritance fraud from 2013 through March 2023, falsely claiming an inheritance of gold and jewels that required taxes and fees to release, and agreed to pay restitution of approximately $4.4 million, the direct loss caused by his involvement.
- Sentencing was scheduled for 8 September 2026 before US District Judge Angela M. Martinez; no report of the sentence was found in the sources reviewed.
Joseph Kwadwo Badu Boateng was indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. In June 2026 he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and the plea agreement records that he admitted the romance and inheritance scheme described below. He had not been sentenced when the sources reviewed were published, and no sentence has been found since. The details of the wider scheme that go beyond his plea, and the conduct of his co-conspirators, remain allegations.
Why this case matters
Ten years. That is the number to hold onto, the alleged conduct runs from 2013 to 2023, which is not a scam so much as a career.
It also shows how the categories on this site blur in practice. Prosecutors describe it as a romance/inheritance scheme: the relationship comes first, then the story about assets that exist and are almost, nearly available. The gold-and-jewels framing is a very old fraud structure, the Spanish Prisoner, the 419 letter, the unclaimed inheritance, attached to a modern relationship built online. The relationship is what makes the old story believable.
The mechanism, stated plainly
The allegation is that victims were told valuable property was theirs or was being held for them, and that releasing it required payment of taxes, fees or other costs. Every payment is an advance fee, and the structure has one property that makes it unusually damaging: it never has to end. There is always another fee, because the thing being released does not exist and therefore cannot arrive.
What it tells you about the scheme
Extradition is what makes cases like this rare rather than routine. The arrest happened in Ghana, at the request of US prosecutors, in a case built over years by the FBI. That is a slow and expensive route, and it is the only one available when the operator has never set foot in the country he is stealing from, which is the ordinary situation in romance fraud.
That route did work here: the plea came about a year after the extradition. It is still the exception, which is why prevention has to carry most of the weight here. If the money has left, the realistic path to getting it back does not run through a courtroom on the other side of the world.
Sources
- Justice Department Highlights Enforcement Efforts Protecting Older Americans from Transnational Fraud Schemes in Recognition of 2025 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. US Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The charges, dates, district, alleged conduct and the Ghanaian arrest.
- Ghanaian National Extradited to the United States for Participating in Fraud Scheme Targeting the Elderly. US Attorney's Office, District of Arizona. Accessed 2026-10-10. Supports: The May 2023 indictment, the 27 May 2025 arrest in Ghana, the 26 June 2025 extradition and the maximum penalties.
- Ghanaian National Extradited to U.S. Pleads Guilty in Romance and Inheritance Scheme Targeting the Elderly. US Attorney's Office, District of Arizona. Accessed 2026-10-10. Supports: The guilty plea to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the admitted conduct, the approximately $4.4 million restitution and the 8 September 2026 sentencing date before Judge Martinez.