Fake US embassy shut down over visa racket

Authorities in Ghana have busted a fake United States embassy in the capital Accra run by a criminal network that for a decade issued illegally obtained authentic visas, the US State Department said.

Until it was shut down this summer, the sham embassy was housed in a rundown two-story building with a corrugated iron roof and flew a US flag outside. Inside hung a portrait of President Barack Obama.

"It was not operated by the United States government, but by figures from both Ghanaian and Turkish organized crime rings and a Ghanaian attorney practicing immigration and criminal law," the State Department said in a statement.