A man from Ghana named John Ackay Blay-Miezah scammed more than 300 Americans, taking a total of $250 million from them.

He lied to these people by saying he had $27 billion in bonds but needed money to unlock the funds.

In 1975, he was arrested in Ghana for having foreign currency he didn’t declare. But he managed to talk his way out of trouble.

Blay-Miezah later got a diplomatic passport and moved to Europe, which made him look more official and trustworthy.

Between the 1960s and 1980s, he ran one of the biggest advance-fee scams ever recorded. He used his charm and a made-up story about being a diplomat to fool investors into giving him large amounts of money.

When he was arrested in Ghana in 1975, he tricked the military government at the time (led by Acheampong) into believing he had $47 billion in a Swiss bank. This helped him get released, showing how good he was at making up convincing lies—even to powerful people.

A 2025 study from The Conversation explains that scammers like Blay-Miezah often said their actions were payback for how colonizers treated Africans in the past. This idea may have made him feel justified and helped others in society accept what he was doing.