Word: blay
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Meet John Ackah Blay-Miezah, native of Ghana, man of the world, a portly, elegant, globe-trotting charmer who seems to awe those who encounter him. "A very intelligent, cultured man," gushed one American admirer. "He knows every opera and can recognize a symphony from just a couple of notes. He is a nationally ranked chess player. He speaks nine languages." He is also, say authorities, a world-class swindler...
Philadelphia's newly elected district attorney, Ronald Castille, asserts that since 1972, Blay-Miezah and his American "agent," Robert Ellis, have swindled at least $18 million from about 300 investors in the Philadelphia area for a nonexistent Ghanaian trust fund. Says Castille: "It's the biggest scam in the history of Philadelphia." Adds Assistant D.A. William Wolf: "What you had were some of the most successful and intelligent men and women in Philadelphia who bought a treasure map from con men." Some sources say that Philadelphians were not the only suckers: the bogus trust may have taken in as much...
...tells it, Blay-Miezah passed himself off as the sole beneficiary of a trust set up by deposed Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, who died in Rumania in 1972. Gullible investors were told that the Oman Ghana Trust Fund, to be used for economic development in Ghana, had shadowy origins and was funded with billions of dollars in banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein; the story was backed up with an account number and a vaguely worded letter from the Union Bank of Switzerland...