Kingsley Ofosu ‘Deadly Voyage’ sole survivor arrested for alleged €120k fraud

Kinsley Ofosu, the sole survivor of the famous Deadly Voyage stowaway story in 1992, has been arrested for an alleged involvement in a €120,000 scam.

Kinsley Ofosu made international headlines in 1992 with his miraculous survival from a stowaway trip.

Ofosu is said to have been arrested from a hideout at Prampram in the Greater Accra after almost two-and-a-half decades of relentless efforts, the police said.

Ofosu was arrested on Saturday, October 14 and subsequently arraigned before the Takoradi Circuit Court B.

Prosecuting, Inspector Robert Yawson told the court presided over by Henrietta Charway that the suspect has been on the police wanted list since 1998.

After almost two-and-a-half decades of relentless efforts, the police arrested Ofosu on Saturday, October 14. He added that all efforts to have him arrested have not been successful.

The prosecution prayed the court to remand the suspect to enable the police to conclude their investigations.

According to prosecution, the suspect has vacated his residence in Tanokrom, a surburb of Takoradi, to an unknown location, making it difficult for the police to trace him.

He argued that the suspect might interfere in the investigations if he should be granted bail and, therefore, prayed for a remand.

Counsel for the accused, Victor Owusu’s plea for his client to be granted bail was not granted.

Kingsley Ofosu has, therefore, been remanded into police custody to reappear on Monday, October 30, 2023.

The complainant, Charles Ohemeng, who is based in Germany claims he met the accused in Germany in 1997 after he made international headlines following his miraculous escape from MC Ruby Cargo Ship.

According to the complainant he decided to ship some vehicles and printing machines through Kingsley Ofosu to Ghana and Ofosu agreed.

He claims he bought Mercedes Benz, a tanker, a Nissan, double axle vehicle, Opel, printing machines, and many others amounting to about 240,000 deutschmark (an equivalent of 120,000 Euros) at the time.

The vehicles and the items he said were shipped to Ofosu in Ghana and that was the end of everything. He said he did not hear from him again until his arrest on Saturday.

How Kingsley Ofosu became famous internationally

In 1992, Kingsley Ofosu made international headlines after he survived the slaughter of a group of African stowaways by the crew of a Bahamian-flagged Ukrainian-crewed cargo ship, MC Rugby.

Ofosu lost his half-brother, Albert Cudjoe who was shot when they tried escaping as the only two survivors.

When the trial of the crew members made international headlines, multiple film companies approached Ofosu to purchase the rights to his story. He eventually struck a deal with Union Pictures and Viva Films. The Union Pictures/Viva Films production was to be distributed to and financed by HBO and the BBC.

The screenplay for Deadly Voyage was written by Stuart Urban, who used interviews with Ofosu as his primary source material. The movie was filmed in England and in Ghana.

The cast of Deadly Voyage were Omar Epps as Kingsley Ofosu, Joss Ackland as the ship's captain, Sean Pertwee as Ion Plesin, David Suchet as Andreas Vlachos, Ghana’s David Dontoh, Oscar Provencal and Juliet Asante.