On October 20, 2006, the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, sentenced Dominic ADU-GYAMFI, of Potomac Falls, Virginia. ADU-GYAMFI, president of Reston International Corporation dba RediKash, received 12 months and a day in prison, two years’ supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit the entire $241,452 that ICE seized, for operating a Prohibited Money Service Business in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1960.
In May 2006, ADU-GYAMFI pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging him with 18 U.S.C. 1960. According to his guilty plea, ADU-GYAMFI transmitted over $28 million to overseas locations, including Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, England, Hong Kong, China, Cyprus and India. In 1992, Dominic ADU-GYAMFI incorporated Reston International Corporation in the Commonwealth of Virginia and established himself as president of the corporation d.b.a. RediKash. From December 2002 through the end of 2005, ADU-GYAMFI and others acting at his direction engaged in the business of money transmitting in Virginia, using the entity Reston International Corporation, dba RediKash. In 2004 and 2005, ADU-GYAMFI submitted applications to the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s, Bureau of Financial Institutions (SCC), to obtain a state license to transmit money. SCC sent ADU-GYAMFI certified letters deferring both applications and seeking additional information. A January 10, 2005 letter from the SCC directed ADU-GYAMFI to “immediately cease any and all money transmission business … since it is not licensed to conduct such business [in Virginia].” ADU-GYAMFI continued his illegal business, despite these warnings.
In March 2005, an informant posing as a drug dealer entered the RediKash business in Woodbridge, provided fictitious identification and asked how he could quickly send money to his drug-dealing boss with no questions asked. The RediKash employee accepted the money, knowing it to be illegal proceeds and transmitted it to a person in Accra, Ghana, noted as an OFAC-Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker. The money actually employed to obtain incriminating information were actually HIDTA designated POI/POE funds.
ICE executed search and seizure warrants on ADU-GYAMFI ‘s businesses and residence in December 2005, seizing numerous records and $241,452 from three bank accounts in Virginia. An ICE task force officer from the Virginia Office of Attorney General (VA-OAG) investigated this case through the ICE-led Annandale HIDTA Money Laundering Initiative, comprising of members from ICE, VA-OAG, FBI, Prince William County PD, and the Metropolitan PD.