On or about December 8, 2025, officers with the Hastings Police Department responded to a fraud report in the lobby of the Hastings Police Department, which is located in the City of Hastings in Dakota County. An officer met with K. E. J., [DOB REDACTED], an adult man fully identified in police reports, hereinafter “Victim.” Victim [NAME REDACTED] had been swindled out of $11,687.91. Victim [NAME REDACTED] on December 6, 2025, he was received a call from [PHONE REDACTED]. Victim reported speaking with an unnamed person who said they were with Wells Fargo Bank.
This unknown individual told Victim [NAME REDACTED] attempted to withdraw $20,000 from his bank account and had applied for a loan using his tax identification number, this unknown individual then transferred Victim [NAME REDACTED] was their supervisor. Victim [NAME REDACTED] on a Facetime call with two unknown individuals identified on Facetime as “Agent. [email redacted]” and “[email redacted],” neither of whom had their cameras on, but who sounded like English speaking men. These individuals were able to tell Victim his own social security number, name, date of birth and cell phone number.
Believing these individuals were actually from Wells Fargo, Victim shared his screen with them, and the individuals talked him through the process of transferring his funds to his Wells Fargo savings account, and then to his Wells Fargo credit account. Victim [NAME REDACTED] instructed to send these individuals three payments in the amount of $3,196.13, 4,245.89, and 4,245.89, again. All three payments were made via PayPal to user “Amani Edwards.” In total $6,500 was charged by credit to these individuals and $5,187.91 was charged directly from Victim’s account.
Victim [NAME REDACTED] informed these transactions were fraudulent. Officers were able to view the profile photo for PayPal user “Amani Edwards,” which depicted an African American woman with long black hair possibly sitting in a vehicle. Officers later received still images from Walmart surveillance from transactions in which Amani Edwards’ PayPal account was used. Each of these images showed a short, slender African American woman. Officers made a request to the BCA to obtain Amani Edwards’ driver’s license/identification card photo.
Officers received a Georgia driver’s license photo, which included a physical description. Officers were able to determine that the appearance Amani Edwards [DOB REDACTED], hereinafter “Defendant,” was consistent with that of PayPal account profile photo as well as the appearance of the woman seen conducting transactions using Amani Edwards’ PayPal account. Put simply, law enforcement was then able to ascertain that Defendant 2 19HA-CR-26-327 Filed in District Court State of Minnesota 3/6/2026 was the one who had received and was now spending the funds stolen from Victim.
