In Ohio, America, a man who tricked several people out of more than $800,000 by pretending to be a Ghanaian royal was sentenced to twenty years in jail.
According to CNN, Daryl Robert Harrison, also known as Prince Daryl R. Attipoe and Prophet Daryl R. Attipoe, scammed at least 14 victims in order to accumulate a sizeable fortune. He also went by the aliases Prince and Prophet.
In September of last year, he was found guilty of mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and interfering with witnesses. His sentence has already been announced.
The prosecution claims that Harrison tricked people out of their money by posing as a prince from Ghana who could help them invest in African haulage and mining companies.
The Power House of Prayer Ministries, a church that the now-convicted man and his stepfather pretended to be pastors of, was said to have been home to the majority of the fraud victims.
Prosecutors said before Judge Michael J. Newman’s District Court, according to a CNN report, that Harrison and his stepfather used the investment money they received from their victims for personal reasons, including renting a home in Colorado and purchasing pricey cars.
Prosecutors described Harrison in court filings as an
“extremely self-centred, self-possessed sociopath who has no respect for societal rules or norms, and further lacks any empathy or sympathy for his victims”.
The documents added that he “intimidated and threatened his victims to establish and maintain control over them” and that “each of the Defendant’s fraud crimes were committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated fashion.”
Prior to receiving his punishment, Harrison begged for mercy, and parishioners and family members petitioned the court to strike a balance between justice and mercy.
His lawyer argued for a lenient punishment, pointing out that his client’s wife has stage IV cancer and is raising their six children.
Judge Michael J. Newman instead gave him the maximum punishment permitted by law: 20 years in prison. The sentence was increased from the prosecutors’ original request for a 14-year imprisonment.
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