The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted US citizen Archie Boimah Richards, accusing him of defrauding three Taiwanese women out of a total of more than NT$1 million (US$33,091) by allegedly posing as a wealthy arms dealer.
The indictment said Richards used WhatsApp and online dating sites to communicate with the women, gaining their trust before allegedly asking for money.
The women reported the incidents to police. Richards has been in pre-trial detention since April.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
Richards is African-American, but posted pictures representing himself as a Caucasian man and described himself as a wealthy arms dealer from the US.
A Taipei woman accused Richards of cheating her with a scam involving funds to facilitate “customs clearance” after she gave him an unspecified amount of money.
She told police that Richards mentioned a big profit from weapons sales to Afghanistan, where US troops are engaged, and that he had cash and gold to be transported to Taiwan, but it was delayed by customs.
Richards made promises that he would move to Taiwan to develop their romantic relationship and asked her to pay a “customs clearance fee,” police quoted her as saying.
She agreed to do so, but “it was a black man who showed up to take the money,” police said.
Sensing that something was wrong, she took a photograph of him, they said.
She reported the incident, along with the photo, after Richards stopped responding to her, police said.
A special task force was set up to investigate the case.
The task force found that two other women were allegedly defrauded by Richards in a similar fashion.
Investigators said a man was also targeted, with Richards allegedly posing as a lawyer.
Richards sought US$20,000 from the man, the investigators said.
The man said he almost handed over the cash, but realized it was a scam when Richards failed to present financial documents as he had requested, according to police.
Police searched Richards’ residence in April and detained him for questioning.
The court approved his detention, saying investigators had to determine whether Richards was acting alone, or if he was an agent of a foreign-based criminal ring.
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