Columbus bank employee stole $1.8 million from customers, romance scam victims

Sarah Szilagy
·2 min read
23

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A former Columbus bank employee who scammed multiple people out of nearly $2 million will spend more than eight years in prison.

Prince Oduro, 34, was sentenced in federal court Thursday to 8.5 years in prison for money laundering and wire fraud — and ordered to pay back $1.8 million to his victims, the U.S. attorney’s office for southern Ohio announced Friday. Oduro, of Westerville, admitted to stealing customers’ bank information and wiring money to PayPal accounts. After pleading guilty, he continued to scam by posing as a romantic interest to people online.

According to the federal complaint, Oduro accessed at least five customers’ bank information while working for JPMorgan Chase Bank in Columbus. He then wired customers’ money to PayPal accounts and withdrew funds as cash.

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From 2015 through March 2020, Oduro stole more than $1 million, funneling the funds through PayPal accounts he also used to launder proceeds from concurrently-running online romance scams. Oduro posed online as someone needing a medical operation, had been injured while deployed to Afghanistan, or had access to gold and silver, according to the complaint.

One victim sent Oduro nearly $400,000, believing her dead husband had stolen valuable artwork while traveling to Atlanta for business, the district attorney’s office said.

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When investigators executed a search warrant, they found incriminating messages on Oduro’s phone.

“This is the only business in America I can do and make 20k in a month and not get arrested…I’m locating money, I’m not fraud anyone…It’s called money laundering,” Oduro wrote in a WhatsApp message.

Oduro was arrested in 2022 and pleaded guilty in January 2023, but he continued his online romance scams, the district attorney’s office said. He was re-arrested in November 2023 after racking up more than $700,000 from post-plea fraud.

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