"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 on 28 May 2025 at the request of the United States.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- Ghana, United States
- Outcome
- Charged — an allegation, not a conviction
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Romance scams, Advance fee and 419 scams, Prize, lottery and sweepstakes scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-06
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 on 28 May 2025 pursuant to a US extradition request.
- Investigated by the FBI.
An indictment is an allegation. Joseph Kwadwo Badu Boateng has not been convicted of these charges and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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.
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.