LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A second person has been charged for their role in allegedly attempting to defraud the City of Lexington out of millions of dollars.
According to a criminal complaint, Nana Kwabena Amuah, a native of Ghana, has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
24-year-old Shimea McDonald, of Houston, was previously arrested and indicted in connection to the case. She's been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, one count of providing fraudulent statements to a federally insured financial institution, and three counts of identity theft, according to a news release from the United States Attorney's Office.
McDonald appeared in court on Tuesday. She pleaded not guilty to her fraud charges. A judge set her trial date for April 18.
McDonald was released and is wearing an ankle monitor. She and her lawyer would not comment when LEX 18 tried to speak to them outside.
WHAT HAPPENED?
According to an affidavit, Amuah asked McDonald to work for him after meeting her at a Miami strip club, indicating she could "make a lot of money" if she did.
Court documents allege Amuah was charged with felony criminal mischief in Miami, so he left Florida and moved to Houston. From there, Amuah allegedly provided McDonald with fake identities, a cell phone, and asked her to form businesses with the Secretary of State in Texas, open bank accounts, and conduct transactions.
According to court documents, McDonald has been cooperating with federal authorities by giving her consent to search the phone she used to communicate with Amuah.
The affidavit says despite both living and operating in Houston, the two communicated over Telegram, an encrypted messaging service, to communicate. The court documents allege the two have years of communications about fraudulent activity.
Authorities say two are part of several conspirators who engaged in business email compromise scams. They allege the group impersonated vendors in emails and requested wire payments to a new bank account.
According to the indictment, in August 2022, the conspirators impersonated a nonprofit that had business with the City of Lexington over email and convinced an employee to wire funds owed to the nonprofit to a bank account at Truist Bank. The City then wired a total of $3,905,837.05.
Truist Bank and the City of Lexington recovered all the stolen funds about a week later.
An FBI agent says in the affidavit that their communications on Telegram indicate "many more victims had fallen prey to the wire fraud and money laundering scheme of which McDonald and Amuah were both integral parts."
Amuah was ordered by a judge to be detained and the case was transferred to Lexington.
McDonald faces up to 20 years on the count of wire fraud; she faces up to 30 years for the count of bank fraud; she faces up to two years, to run consecutively on each count of aggravated identity theft; and she faces judgments for restitution and forfeiture of the property attained through the fraud.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and Lexington police.
