CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati man used a stolen identity for decades, committing crimes and even getting married and fathering children under the assumed identity, according to federal prosecutors.
Federal officials said 46-year-old Yaw Mintah Afari is facing charges of aggravated theft, passport fraud and making false statements to an agent of the federal government.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Afari traveled to the U.S. from his home country of Ghana on a visitor's visa in 1999, obtaining a Virginia driver's license in the same year. In July of 2001, Afari was charged with assault in Fairfax, Virginia, officials said.
After that charge, Afari allegedly stole the identity of someone he knew, who lived on the same road he did.
From there, federal officials said Afari used that stolen identity to commit fraud, theft and forgery in Georgia in 2007 and 2009; in turn, the person whose identity was stolen was arrested in 2009 for the warrant that had been issued for Afari's crimes, federal officials said.
That victim also had to take a DNA test to prove he was not liable for child support payments for a child Afari fathered under the victim's name.
The criminal record Afari compiled under the false identity also allegedly led to the victim losing his job.
Afari was convicted and sentenced to prison time in Georgia for the crimes he committed under the false name, but he was paroled in 2012, officials said.
Federal officials said Afari then moved to Cincinnati in 2018 or 2019; he married a woman in 2019, using the stolen identity to procure a marriage certificate in Hamilton County. He also fathered a child under the fake identity.
Officials said in February of 2022, Afari applied for a passport using the stolen identity, which led to an investigation into him and his true identity.
If sentenced on all charges he faces, Afari could spend up to 17 years in prison.
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