Fake Serviceman Gets 14 Years
In a story put out by the Associated Press, several news outlets including Military.com are reporting that a man received a sentence of fourteen years for his role in a dating scheme where he falsely posed as a military member.
Man Who Posed as Service Member in Dating Scheme Gets 14-Year Sentence
4 May 2022 | Associated Press
CAMDEN, N.J. — A man who helped dupe dozens into sending millions of dollars to people posing as U.S. military personnel in an online dating scheme has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison.
Rubbin Sarpong, 38, of Millville, New Jersey, must also pay more than $3 million in restitution to 36 victims under the sentence imposed Tuesday, as well as more than $385,000 to the Internal Revenue Service. He had pleaded guilty last November to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering and tax evasion counts.
Federal prosecutors say the scheme ran from January 2016 to September 2019. They say Sarpong and his co-conspirators, several of whom live in Ghana, set up phony profiles on online dating sites using fictitious or stolen identities and posing as U.S. military personnel.
They eventually pretended to forge romantic relationships with at least 40 victims overall and sought money from them, often purportedly to ship gold bars to the United States. The conspirators told many victims that their money would be returned once the gold bars were received in the United States, but instead it was withdrawn in cash, wired to other domestic bank accounts and to other conspirators in Ghana.
Sarpong received roughly $1.14 million in taxable income from the scheme but didn’t file income tax returns and paid no income tax, prosecutors said.
What happens in Ghana should stay in Ghana.
This seems to be a pretty lucrative business model. I can envision them having signs around Ghana saying “Dating Scams 101 Lecture at 7pm” and they teach this stuff to each other.
The technique of using a false profile to dupe others is known as “Catfishing.”
The odd thing here is the authorities seemed more concerned about not paying taxes than any violation of Stolen Valor. Oh, well.
Category: Stolen Valor
Class: “Dating Scams 101 Lecture at 7pm””
Location: Main Auditorium at All-Points Logistics HQ in Merritt Island, Florida.
Reason: My assumption is that this is a required lecture series for new incoming personnel at the All-Points Logistics School of Executive Management.
“New Employee Orientation”
If it is the FBI, it is referred to as “Honey Potting” someone… I refer you to “The Interview.”
The “Nigerian prince” gets around.
Fools. I was the one who was able to secure the Iraqi gold and I shared it with no one. However I am trying to bring it into the US as gold prices are so high right now. If you wish to help and earn some money on the side send Email to freegoldnotascam@hotmail.com
“…more concerned about not paying taxes…” Welp, they coundn’t bust Al Capone for his other nefarious activities but the tax man did. Don’t steal from the IRS. They hate competition.
Ol’ Rubbin might not of been a Nigerian Prince, but I’m sure he’ll be a Queen of Cell Block C….with plenty of dates. No picture of Rubbin in the article, but I’ll bet he’ll be a feature “spread” in next month’s issue of Prison Bride Weekly.
No mugshots… but plenty o’ candid camera.
Show THIS to any woman
who believes she met her “Hero Teddy”
on the Book of the Fake.
It’s stunning how gullible some of these lonely women can be.
When the felon is of a certain hue, his pic will not be shown in the media story. It is like a rarely violated rule of something called “journalism.”
Unless the felon was commiting a crime and ended up DRT … Then they will use a pic from when the felon was five years old.
I’ll bet Bruce, Tiny, Julio, and Thor of “BTJT Prison Deli, Home of the Man Meat Sammich” will be “Rubbin” it in once Mr Sarpong ends up in Cell Block C.
WOW thats some scam. I wonder if I could sell my Time Machines which in demo mode will take a person/persons 3 hours into the future in 180 minutes.
Call Sachs 3rd Aveune at Melrose 5-5300 and ask for the Time machine Dept.