A Ghanaian, Richard Yaw Dorpe, 37, has been convicted in the U.S. District Court after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicted him of crimes bordering money laundering, romance scams and other fraudulent schemes targeted at U.S. senior citizens.

Mr Dorpe will spend 40 months in a U.S. federal prison for the charges, ruled by Judge Arenda Wright Allen on Friday.

Mr Allen gave the judgment alongside acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Raj Parekh, and Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office, Brian Dugan.

Mr Dorpe pleaded guilty to the charges in May. Court records revealed that he posed as a 57-year-old man from Virginia Beach on dating websites to defraud people above age 50.

The fraudster disguises as a jeweller travelling abroad to buy gold and other jewellery to defraud his unknown victims.

He convinced one of his victims, a recently widowed 68 years old resident of Chesapeake, to send him over $300,000 in funds, a computer, a wristwatch and clothes.

The unsuspecting widow had sent the requested items before realising that she had fallen victim to a scam.

Mr Dorpe was extradited after the Ghanaian government in January approved the United States request. He was then brought to the Eastern District of Virginia, where he was sentenced.