Herman Emmanuel Fankem

Herman Emmanuel Fankem (born September 12, 1980) is the main pseudonym used by an unidentified Cameroonian serial fraudster who has refused to identify himself to Canadian authorities since his 2013 arrest for participating in an advance-fee scam. He has been held in immigration custody in the maximum-security Central East Correctional Centre since his arrest and has yet to be identified. He is the longest-serving detainee on immigration charges in Canada.

Fankem claims that he is a French citizen visiting from England. He has been uncooperative in attempts to identify him, sometimes threatening and insulting officers, and has refused to be photographed or fingerprinted. He has used at least ten aliases spanning six countries, all linked to past convictions of fraud, falsifying documents, and impersonation. In 2020, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice determined that he was a Cameroonian national, likely born in Douala with the first name "Emmanuel", and ordered his prolonged detention.

Early life, identities and crimes The National Police of Cameroon stated that a man with a similar name as Fankem was a clothing vendor near Douala and provided Canadian investigators with pictures of Fankem in his youth and in England. Fankem received two Cameroonian passports in 1997 and 2002 with slightly differing names and dates of birth, neither of them with the surname Fankem. Fankem was again arrested in Britain in 2009 under the Cameroonian identity of Herman Kemté, born September 13, 1979, on charges of fraud, and was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. The National Police of Cameroon have found no records of anyone named Herman Fankem or Emmanuel Febibouon.

Cell phones seized after his 2013 arrest in Canada show text messages between Fankem and his friends and family, none of them addressing him by "Herman" but rather as "Emmanuel" or a diminutive, with his mother calling him "Emanu".

Fankem was charged with two counts of fraud and one count of personation. The charges were suspended and he was transferred to the Central East Correctional Centre by the Canada Border Services Agency for deportation to France, as Fankem insisted he was French and had no other nationality. During his initial immigration hearing, he claimed to be a French national visiting from England (where he claimed to live), complained about his detention, and requested to face trial on the fraud charges to "settle the allegations" against him.

After law enforcement determined that he used a false identity, Fankem refused to meet with CBSA officers trying to determine his identity and refused to have his photograph or fingerprints taken. The IRB barred press coverage of the case to "facilitate Mr. Fankem's ability to fully participate in his hearing without creating additional distress".

A June 2020 mental health assessment determined that Fankem had no problems with memory or cognition and did not suffer from any major mental illness, but he likely "faces problems in higher order reasoning". As there was a lack of available information regarding his developmental history, a provisional diagnosis was made for paranoid personality disorder as well as a delusional disorder, persecutory type.