Ghanaian businessman Isaac Kofi Oduro Boateng, popularly often called Kofi Boat, is difficult his extradition to the USA, the place he faces critical allegations of main a cybercrime syndicate that defrauded people and companies of over $100 million between 2016 and 2023.
Showing earlier than the Gbese District Court docket on Friday, 20 June 2025, Boat’s authorized counsel argued that the extradition course of was flawed. In keeping with journalist Ameyaw Debrah, who supplied unique insights from the courtroom, the defence claimed that the U.S. authorities had not adopted the proper authorized process.
Kofi Boat’s lawyer challenged the admissibility of the U.S. arrest warrant, arguing it had not been authenticated by Ghana’s diplomatic mission in the USA, Debrah revealed in a Fb submit. This authentication is a authorized requirement underneath Ghanaian regulation for such paperwork to be thought of admissible.
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The Justice of the Peace has since adjourned the case to 1 July 2025 for a ruling on the procedural problem.
Boat, who was arrested on Friday, 13 June 2025, in a joint operation involving the Ghana Police Service, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Interpol, has denied any involvement in cyber fraud. His authorized staff insisted that his enterprise actions within the U.S. had been legit.
The businessman’s arrest got here alongside these of Inusah Ahmed, also referred to as Pascal—proprietor of PAC Academy—and Derrick Van Yeboah. A fourth suspect, Patrick Kwame Asare, is presently at giant. The arrests are a part of a broader clampdown by U.S. authorities focusing on cybercrime networks working from Ghana.
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In keeping with the defence, the fees towards Boat stem from a enterprise transaction with one other Ghanaian particular person who has already been convicted of fraud in the USA. Boat maintains that the transaction was totally lawful and that he had no additional involvement within the fraudulent actions attributed to the opposite celebration.
He’s not the chief of a prison community, He engaged in a single enterprise deal that has now been mischaracterised as a part of a wider fraudulent scheme
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The U.S. Division of State formally requested the extradition by means of its embassy in Accra, with supporting paperwork reportedly signed by Ghana’s Minister of the Inside, Honourable Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak.
In a associated improvement earlier this yr, another Ghanaian entrepreneur, Joseph Kwadwo Badu Boateng, also referred to as Dada Joe Remix, was extradited to the U.S. and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and cash laundering.
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As authorized proceedings proceed, consideration stays centered on whether or not Ghana’s judiciary will uphold or reject the extradition request based mostly on the defence’s procedural objections.
