Man accused of scamming Georgia church out of over $60,000 arrested in Virginia, sheriff says

A Virginia man is in custody, accused of defrauding a Troup County church out of more than $60,000 in a business email scheme, deputies say.

Samuel Nana Opoku, a resident of Fairfax County, Virginia, is facing charges of money laundering, felony theft by taking, five counts of identity fraud, and initiation of deceptive commercial email.

Investigators say that Opoku was part of a group that impersonated financial advisors and used spoofed email accounts to misdirect tens of thousands of dollars from a local church into business accounts under their control.

Once they obtained the funds, the Troup County Sheriff’s Office states that the group transferred the money through additional accounts they had created using stolen identities. Investigators say the group also used the identities of some of the church staff to create other email accounts to try to target others.

Opoku was arrested on Nov. 22, 2025, and was extradited to Troup County in March.