The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has exposed the operations of a criminal network, largely made up of Chinese and Malaysian nationals, that defrauded both Ghanaians and British citizens through e-commerce websites and online investment schemes.

According to the Attorney General on December 18, 2025, the gang established a Ghanaian company in 2019 to serve as a front for their operations.

He said official records indicate that the company’s registered business activities included general trading as well as online trading and marketing.

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“The victims were permitted to purchase products online from the company's e-commerce website by paying a registration fee. Once the victims signed on, they were encouraged to purchase investment packages, which ranged from GH¢770 to GH¢9,240,” he explained.

The criminal enterprise is said to have offered multiple investment “classes,” ranging from VIP 1 through VIP 5, each promising progressively higher returns.

Victims were told they could earn substantial profits by operating trading accounts, running online shops, trading the company’s goods, and were also encouraged to recruit others through networking and referral systems.

“The criminals developed attractive flyers to promote fraudulent investment and categorize the investment into classes (VIP 1, VIP 2, VIP 3, VIP 4 to VIP 5) and depending on the package, the price would enhance or increase.

“Victims were informed that they would make fantastic earnings by operating trading accounts, as well as owning an online shop and trading in the company's goods on its online platform. Typical of most Ponzi schemes, victims were encouraged to embark on recruiting other victims through networking and referral systems,” the AG stated.

Dr Ayine further explained that EOCO was able to trace the criminal enterprise with the help of a video produced by the criminal gang.

“These investment packages could also be purchased via virtual currencies. The payments to the company in Ghana were either made by mobile money, cash, or via a crypto wallet. The criminals produced a how-to video demonstrating how to make payment using virtual currency. This video greatly assisted the Economic and Organized Crime Office in tracing the crypto wallet, which was used to receive the money and launder the proceeds of the criminal enterprise,” he continued.

Through their investigations, EOCO used advanced software such as Chain Analysis Reactor to track blockchain transactions and identified that the funds were held in crypto wallets on the offshore, Seychelles-based exchange OKX.

Dr Ayine explained that EOCO’s tracing of the criminal enterprise was aided by findings from OKX’s internal investigation.

“As it turned out, OKX's own internal investigation suggested that the criminal cluster which EOCO was pursuing had been found to be fraudulent. The suspicion of fraud stemmed from the fact that over a thousand transactions from this cluster originated from a particular computer IP address and from a particular location, suggesting the transactions must have been done by an individual,” he disclosed.

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He concluded, “EOCO obtained KYC, which is ‘Know Your Customer’ information from OKX, which showed that the owner of the crypto wallet, is a Chinese national who worked in Ghana under a residence permit and also worked for the company which was used to defraud several Ghanaians and British citizens. This Chinese individual was also named by Ghanaian victims as a person who directly received funds from them in respect of the fraudulent investment scheme. Having connected the dots, EOCO managed to freeze the tainted wallets and set the freezing order on OKX. The office also worked with OKX to notify the holders of the wallets.”



MAG/AE

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