Shatta Wale has publicly defended his longtime associate, Isaac Kofi Oduro Boateng, widely known as Kofi Boat, following the latter’s arrest in connection with a $100 million international fraud investigation led by the FBI and Interpol.
The dancehall artiste, in a live-streamed video that has since gone viral, challenged the growing narrative that Kofi Boat is a fraudster, describing the situation as a “business deal gone wrong” rather than proof of any criminal activity.
“Kofi Boat is not a scammer,” Shatta Wale said emphatically. “Just because someone has been arrested doesn’t mean they’re guilty. Ghanaians should stop jumping to conclusions without knowing the full facts.”
His comments come in the wake of reports that Kofi Boat and two others were arrested on Friday, June 13, 2025, over allegations of orchestrating complex fraud schemes involving Business Email Compromise (BEC) and romance scams. These operations are said to have targeted individuals and corporate entities between 2016 and 2023.
According to the US Embassy in Accra, the arrest followed a formal request made to Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in June 2024. An official warrant, signed by Ghana’s Interior Minister Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, was issued on March 18, 2025. The suspects now face possible extradition to the United States for prosecution in a District Court in New York.
Shatta Wale, however, remained defiant in his support for Kofi Boat, expressing emotional distress about the impact of the arrest on the accused’s family.
“My heart breaks anytime I see his mother and kids,” he said. “They don’t deserve this kind of pain. It’s really sad.”
He also used the opportunity to criticise what he described as a troubling culture of instant judgment and public shaming in Ghana’s media landscape and on social media.
“Why do we take delight in pulling people down?” he asked. “This is not how a society should behave.”
While the legal process unfolds and the extradition request remains under consideration, Shatta Wale’s remarks highlight a deeper debate about presumption of innocence, trial by media, and public accountability in the age of social media.
As the case continues to develop, the public is left grappling with questions not only about the gravity of the charges but also about the fairness of public opinion in such high-profile matters.
