Abu Trica Seeks Stay Of Extradition Pending Appeal
Lawyers for Frederick Kumi, popularly known as Abu Trica, will on July 9, 2026, move a motion seeking to halt the execution of a High Court judgment in Accra affirming his extradition to the United States over an alleged $8 million wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy targeting elderly Americans.
His lawyers, led by Oliver Barker-Vormawor, have filed an emergency application at the High Court seeking to stay the execution of the judgment.
They have also filed a notice of appeal to overturn the decision, which upheld an earlier ruling by a District Court granting the Attorney General’s extradition request.
“The High Court has just made an order bringing forward the date for hearing of the motion to stay the extradition of Abu Trica. Both parties must appear on July 9,” Barker-Vormawor confirmed in a Facebook post yesterday.
The application is seeking, among other reliefs, an order directing that no further steps be taken by the Attorney General, the Minister for the Interior, the Ghana Police Service (INTERPOL), or any other agency to “surrender, extradite, remove, transfer or otherwise deliver” Abu Trica into the custody of the authorities of the United States pending the final determination of his challenge to the extradition.
It is also seeking an order staying the execution, operation and effect of the judgment delivered by the court on July 2, 2026, which dismissed Abu Trica’s application for a writ of habeas corpus.
The application further seeks an order staying the execution and enforcement of the committal order made by the District Court pending the filing and determination of his intended application for leave to appeal and, if leave is granted, the determination of the appeal.
Allegations
Abu Trica has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, he faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment if convicted.
According to a recently unsealed indictment, Kumi is accused of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) software to assume false identities, develop close personal relationships with victims through social media and online dating platforms, gain their trust, and subsequently defraud them of money and valuables.
He had been in custody from December last year until April this year, when a High Court granted him bail in the sum of GH¢30 million with two sureties, each to be justified with landed property.
The decision came as a major relief for Kumi, who had remained in custody since his arrest in December 2025 following a joint operation by Ghanaian law enforcement agencies and their United States counterparts.
His previous attempts to secure bail during the pendency of the extradition proceedings were unsuccessful, as several High Courts dismissed applications filed on his behalf by different lawyers.
Abu Trica was rearrested by security officers on July 2 after the High Court dismissed his challenge to the original extradition order.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak