A reclusive American doctor who was allegedly robbed of $1 million in an African romance scam starring a glamorous Australian swimming school teacher has detailed how the extraordinary saga unfolded.
The 75-year-old radiologist from New York, who requested anonymity to protect his family’s privacy, met a woman known as ‘Grace Jade Erskine’ on a dating website in November 2018.
The wealthy doctor told Daily Mail Australia the pair struck up a connection and talked about everything from their childhood to their families and a possible future together.
But I didn’t know that Grace never really existed, and was simply a fictional character created by a cunning professional con artist named Alfred Ayivor from Ghana, West Africa.
Ghanaian organized crime authorities also allege that a 35-year-old Australian woman named Rebecca Jade Silk from Sydney’s northern beaches assisted Ayivor in the plot by playing ‘Grace’ in person for the doctor in both Ghana and the United States. .
“I always had my doubts about it,” the American medical professional told Daily Mail Australia in a candid interview.
“But she was very smooth, there were no mistakes.”
Ayivor, posing as ‘Grace’, texted the doctor daily for months in an attempt to make him believe he had a future with the stunning Australian.
Rebecca Jade Silk, a teacher at a swimming school on Sydney’s northern beaches, is allegedly at the center of an elaborate romance scam involving fake lawyers and police escorts.
The doctor, pictured above, believed he had a future with ‘Grace Erskine’, but he was very wrong
Grace was supposedly an unemployed hairdresser and mining heiress who was set to inherit her father’s gold mining wealth.
As time passed, Grace raised “business issues,” claiming that the gold her father had left her was stuck in Ghana and she could not recover it on her own.
The doctor smelled a rat and insisted they meet in person.
“He was supposed to meet me in New York for Christmas 2018,” she explained.
‘When I went to pick her up at the airport and she wasn’t there, I received a frantic call from her “lawyer” to tell me that she had been detained because she was trying to get gold.
‘They asked me to post $20,000 bail and I said ‘no way, she can pay it herself.’
The frustrated doctor, assuming he was probably part of a scam, thought this would be the last time he would hear from Grace.
But then Ayivor approached Silk in Australia to help him close the deal, authorities allege.
Explosive texts published in police documents, first reported by CBS News and seen by Daily Mail Australia, show alleged WhatsApp message conversations between Silk and Ayivor in February 2019.
There, Silk, who lives in the Northern Beaches with her parents, asks the kingpin: “What’s my share?”
“How about $100,000?” Ayivor responded.
“$250,000,” Seda said. “Without me, no one gets anything.”
He then allegedly warned that he could shut down the apparent scam unless he was paid properly: “I could always call and say it was a scam.”
Rebecca Silk demanded more money for her part in the scam, according to text messages seen by Daily Mail Australia
In another series of messages with Ayivor, Silk describes his victim as “disgusting”
Appointment in Africa and then in New York
With the deal apparently closed, Silk flew to the Ghanaian capital, Accra, in March 2019 to meet with the doctor.
“I went to look for her at the Kempinski Hotel (in Accra) and she arrived with a police escort, I could never understand it. Very impressive,’ he said.
“Of course she wasn’t who I expected.”
Before seeking Silk’s help, Ayivor had provided the doctor with photographs of a porn star who looked completely different from the Australian woman.
“She told me that she was very reserved and that since we had never met she didn’t want to commit,” he recalled.
“And since she was there, I decided to let it go and see where it went.”
The couple enjoyed time by the pool and went out to dinner before Silk suddenly disappeared.
“She left me a note at her apartment to tell me that her aunt had died and she had to leave to organize her funeral,” he says.
Silk shares her luxurious lifestyle with her Instagram followers and often showcases her travels.
It is not known how Rebecca allegedly became involved with African scammers, but Ghanaian authorities obtained a series of Whatsapp messages between her and Alfred Ayivor. Alfred Ayivor, above, posed as a driver in Ghana to keep an eye on his alleged victim.
The doctor first met Silk, posing for Grace Erskin at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra, Ghana.
Silk at the doctor’s house in New York preparing dinner for him. The couple met in person twice.
The couple met again in July of that year, when Silk stayed at the doctor’s house in New York.
Between those meetings he had begun to transfer large sums of money for his participation in the non-existent gold mine.
Candid photos on social media show Silk staying at home and cooking for the doctor, all while she showed off her international travels by posting photos of her luxurious world trip on Instagram.
“I was trying to create the companies and the legal requirements for the release of gold,” he explained.
“They had arranged meetings with fake lawyers from the UK and it was a very complex process.”
But the alleged scam was busted by Ghana’s Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) after his alarmed family called the FBI, sparking an international investigation.
Alfred Ayivor was arrested, but died of an unknown illness before being tried.
It was through his seized devices that conversations between him and Silk were discovered.
Silk has not been charged with any crime, but remains a person of interest to Ghana police.
She did not respond when approached by Daily Mail Australia, although her boyfriend, Tendia Tudela, claimed his girlfriend did not willingly participate in the scam and did not benefit financially from it.
“They had something against her,” Mr. Tudela said.
“She didn’t get that money.”
As for the doctor, he said that his family had believed from the beginning that their alleged relationship was a scam.
“They were the ones who reported everything,” he explained.
“I’m not angry about it anymore, but I would like some answers and some accountability from (Silk).”
The Australian Federal Police declined to comment, saying it cannot comment on investigations by Ghanaian authorities.