This Really Happened In Africa
Jun 18, 2026 · 1 hr 45 min · 13 segments
Out of prison and out of options, Blay-Miezah invents the Oman Ghana Trust Fund, a fake multi billion dollar fortune tied to Kwame Nkrumah. Investors hand over their savings, presidents take him…
sorry.
That's
And that is this man.
He's
speaking.
From
prison.
Dr.
John Aka Bley Mazan.
1971 was a year before Nkrumah died.
Bley was out of jail, but he started posing as a banker.
So he would go to businessmen, offer to deliver them sizable loans for a fee, and then he disappeared.
Okay, so he pushed his luck this time around.
And then he was sentenced to one to two years at a pretty torturous prison.
And this was sort
of his
rock bottom.
His salvation from prison would come from a man called Reverend James Edward Woodruff.
Blame managed to get a meeting with him, and this would be the telling of the first iteration of the Oman Trust Fund.
Blameza says he is the richest man in the world, the sole beneficiary of a secret trust fund that last time he counted stood at $27 billion.
I was a trusted confidant of Nkrumah.
I have access to money he put away, and I can economically liberate the people of Ghana, so I need to get out of prison now.
So after this, his focus was not necessarily just on money, but he was trying to build legitimacy and keep up his illusion.
I'll be able to prove this week that I'm worth billions.
This fraud has been going on for over 14 years, perhaps even before that, and it is worldwide.
And this guy has... fooled people from the heads of government all the way down to a poor widow in the street.
And in 1979, he would make his biggest move yet.
You guys are not going to see this coming.
Bley decided to...
Well, Ghana has been waiting for this guy.
This guy is good.
He will go down in history as a world famous con man.
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sorry.
That's
And that is this man.
He's
speaking.
From
prison.
Dr.
John Aka Bley Mazan.
1971 was a year before Nkrumah died.
Bley was out of jail, but he started posing as a banker.
So he would go to businessmen, offer to deliver them sizable loans for a fee, and then he disappeared.
Okay, so he pushed his luck this time around.
And then he was sentenced to one to two years at a pretty torturous prison.
And this was sort
of his
rock bottom.
His salvation from prison would come from a man called Reverend James Edward Woodruff.
Blame managed to get a meeting with him, and this would be the telling of the first iteration of the Oman Trust Fund.
Blameza says he is the richest man in the world, the sole beneficiary of a secret trust fund that last time he counted stood at $27 billion.
I was a trusted confidant of Nkrumah.
I have access to money he put away, and I can economically liberate the people of Ghana, so I need to get out of prison now.
So after this, his focus was not necessarily just on money, but he was trying to build legitimacy and keep up his illusion.
I'll be able to prove this week that I'm worth billions.
This fraud has been going on for over 14 years, perhaps even before that, and it is worldwide.
And this guy has... fooled people from the heads of government all the way down to a poor widow in the street.
And in 1979, he would make his biggest move yet.
You guys are not going to see this coming.
Bley decided to...
Well, Ghana has been waiting for this guy.
This guy is good.
He will go down in history as a world famous con man.