Jamal and Kamal Abubakari and Amanda Joy Opoku-Boachie pleaded guilty in a romance-fraud case the government put at $9 million.

An October guilty plea is an admission on the wire-fraud conspiracy those outlets described. It is not the sentence. USA Today reported more than 130 victims. WTOL, citing the same Monday statement, said the statement did not disclose a total. The May 14 indictment also charged money laundering. These October accounts do not say what happened to that count.

USA Today reported Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, that Jamal and Kamal Abubakari, both 22, of Ghana, and Amanda Joy Opoku-Boachie, 53, of Kula, Hawaii, pleaded guilty this month to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, citing a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio. WTOL reported a Monday statement from U.S. Attorney David Toepfer's office said the same three pleaded guilty in October to that conspiracy. USA Today reported sentencing is scheduled for February. WTOL reported a federal judge will sentence them in February 2027. Neither story printed a day in February or a prison term. USA Today reported each faces a maximum of 20 years. WTOL reported the same maximum. A plea on the conspiracy count is what they admitted. February 2027 is a sentencing month, not a sentence.

USA Today reported the fraud ran from July 2024 to April 2026, with victims in 25 U.S. states and in Germany and Austria. It reported the documents say the defendants used dating websites and social media to build personal and often romantic relationships, in some cases with artificial-intelligence-driven video and fake personas, and that victims who had not met them in person wired money to accounts controlled by third-party co-conspirators after false stories about medical emergencies, investment opportunities, or travel costs. WTOL reported the Monday statement said the twins and a woman from Hawaii targeted older Americans on dating websites and social media, used fake personas to build relationships that were typically "romantic in nature," and used false stories to persuade victims to send a total of $9 million. WTOL did not mention artificial-intelligence video, and it did not list the purposes USA Today gave for the transfers. WTOL reported several victims live in a Williams County community it spelled Edgarton, and that others live in 24 other U.S. states, Germany, and Austria. One named community plus 24 other states is the 25 states USA Today reported, with a spelling WTOL printed and USA Today did not.

The loss figure and the number of victims are not told the same way. USA Today reported the scheme took more than $9 million from dozens of victims, most of them elderly Americans, and later reported that federal authorities said more than 130 victims were defrauded, in a paragraph about co-conspirators awaiting extradition from Ghana and seized assets that included a Lamborghini, a Mercedes-Benz, a BMW, and a Tesla Cybertruck. WTOL reported the Monday statement put the total sent by victims at $9 million and said the statement did not disclose how many victims there were, in Williams County or overall. Dozens, and more than 130, are both in USA Today's story. WTOL's reading of the statement is that no total count was given. This file does not pick one number. USA Today reported that, as part of the plea agreement, the three forfeited jewelry seized at their arrests, including luxury timepieces, rings, earrings, medallions, and chains. WTOL reported the same forfeiture, and added high-end watches to that list. USA Today quoted prosecutors: "The consequences of this conduct are all-encompassing." It reported they also said victims were "left with absolutely nothing to sustain their lives going forward after a lifetime of work and saving," and were "ashamed and deprived of the trust they once had in their fellow human beings." WTOL did not print those sentences.

The May 14, 2026 release from the same U.S. Attorney's office is the indictment, not this plea. It said an indictment was unsealed in United States v. Jamal Abubakari, et al., charging Jamal Abubakari, also known as Jamal Abubakar and Arrangement, 22; Kamal Abubakari, also known as Kamal Abubakar and Lancaster, 22; and Amanda Joy Opoku-Boachie, also known as Amanda Joy Glum and Amanda Joy Kessei Bierman, 53, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. USA Today reported those same aliases from court documents. The May release said all three were arrested in Virginia and were then in custody. WTOL reported the Monday statement did not disclose where they were arrested, and that the FBI's Cleveland division led the investigation. The May release also said the FBI Cleveland division led the investigation. The October stories describe a plea to the wire-fraud conspiracy. They do not say the money laundering count was dismissed, and they do not report a sentence. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.