A United States court has granted the application sought by lawyers of an embattled Nigerian politician Abidemi Rufai, charged with $350,000 wire fraud, to postpone his trial until May 31 to grant him more time to review available evidence, according to court documents obtained by PremiumTimes.
This is the second time the court would grant postponement of Abidemi’s trial which was initially scheduled to hold on August 31, 2021. Citing the ‘unusual and complex’ nature of his $350,000 fraud case, his lawyers first secured the permission of the court to delay trial until February 1, 2022.
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US court postpones Rufai’s trial till 2022, cites complexity and unusualness
US court postpones Rufai’s trial till 2022, cites complexity and unusualness
Again, three Nigerians charged with unemployment wire fraud in US
The US District Court for the Western District of Washington Judge Benjamin Settle granted the defendant’s request on January 11, to postpone the trial until the end of May, as the prosecution filed fresh evidence of fraud against him.
The criminal complaint alleges that Rufai used the stolen identities of more than 100 Washington residents to file fraudulent claims with the Employment Security Department (ESD) for pandemic-related unemployment benefits.
It also alleged that Rufai filed fraudulent unemployment claims with Hawaii, Wyoming, Massachusetts, Montana, New York and Pennsylvania, using variations of a single email address in a manner intended to evade automatic detection by fraud systems.
Wire fraud is punishable by up to 30 years in prison when it relates to benefits paid in connection with a presidentially-declared disaster or emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the sentencing of another Nigerian national Charles Onus, who pled guilty to participating in a scheme to conduct cyber intrusions in order to steal payroll deposits, is scheduled to hold on May 12, 2022 and will be delivered by US Southern District of New York Judge Paul G. Gardephe.
US Attorney Damian Williams said Onus admitted to hacking into a payroll company’s system and diverting payroll deposits to prepaid debit cards he controlled, thereby stealing hundreds of thousands of hard-earned dollars from workers across the US.
According to the indictment, public court filings and statements made in court, approximately 5,500 company user accounts were compromised and more than approximately $800,000 in payroll funds were fraudulently diverted to prepaid debit cards between “July 2017 through at least in or about 2018”.
Onus was arrested on April 14, 2021 at San Francisco International Airport after arriving on a flight from Abuja, Nigeria for a two-week vacation in Las Vegas, according to statements Onus made to US Customs and Border Protection at the airport.