Stolen Valor fraud ripped off over $2 million from women

FBI: Fraudster posing as petty officer helped fleece females for $2.1 million

By: Navy Times staff
September 6, 2019 

A probable cause affidavit filed by Special Agent Dean J. DiPietro, a member of the FBI’s White Collar Crime squad in Atlantic City, estimates that Sarpong and the other three people netted at least $2.1 million in the scams over the past 3 ½ years.

Rubbin Sarpong never was a U.S. Navy petty officer stationed in Canada or Syria who needed a little cash to come home to his loved one.

Although one victim sent him $50,000 in a series of wire transfers dating back to early 2016, according to court documents, Sarpong really was laundering her money, stashing it in bank accounts or doling it out to co-conspirators on two continents to further what authorities say is an ongoing swindle that preys on lonely hearts with a crush on military men.

Federal prosecutors say that Rubbin Sarpong on March 2, 2017, posted a photograph of himself on social media accounts, holding a large stack of cash to his ear like a mobile phone, with a caption reading "WakeUp with 100K... OneTime. Making A phone Call To Let My Bank Know Am Coming;" (U.S District Court for the District of New Jersey)

Sarpong’s alleged scheme was outlined in a 27-page federal indictment unsealed Wednesday in Camden, New Jersey. It paints him as a grifter living in the south New Jersey town of Millville, with tentacles that reached out to at least 30 victims and three co-conspirators in the U.S. and the West African nation of Ghana.

Federal court records reveal that Sarpong was arrested Wednesday, a day after being charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
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