Man got married, fathered child and was arrested — all with stolen identity, feds say
An Ohio man is accused of fathering a child, getting married and getting arrested under the stolen identity of a former acquaintance, court documents show.
Yaw Mintah Afari, of Cincinnati, met the acquaintance when he lived in Virginia, after coming to the U.S. from Ghana, and stole the man’s identity sometime after 2001, according to an affidavit.
The victim told investigators he was “seriously impacted” by the identity theft, the affidavit said. The victim said he had to travel to Georgia twice — once after being arrested for a crime Afari was accused of and again to take a DNA test to avoid child support payments for Afari’s alleged child, court records showed.
Due to the criminal charges under his identity, the victim also said he lost his job as an Uber driver, according to court records.
Afari’s attorney did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Jan. 18.
Court records indicate that Afari used the stolen identity when he was arrested in Georgia in 2007. He pleaded guilty to or was convicted of several crimes in multiple Georgia counties and was in prison from 2009 to 2012, according to the affidavit.
While serving his prison sentence, Afari applied for two replacement Social Security cards using the victim’s information and his prison ID number, court documents show.
Afari moved to Cincinnati sometime between 2018 and 2019 and got married using the victim’s identity in 2019, according to the affidavit.
He eventually obtained a replacement of the victim’s Social Security card in 2021 and later applied for a passport in 2022, according to court documents. Afari’s passport application was flagged, which led investigators to later determine that he was using a stolen identity, they said.
Afari was charged with aggravated identity theft, passport fraud and making false statements to a federal agency, court documents show. If convicted, he faces up to 17 years in prison, according to WKRC.
Afari was arrested on Wednesday, Jan. 17, and appeared in court the same day where his court records were unsealed, according to Butler County inmate records and WXIX.
This story was originally published January 18, 2024 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Man got married, fathered child and was arrested — all with stolen identity, feds say."
