SUSPENDED AIDE TO GOVERNOR DAPO ABIODUN SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS IMPRISONMENT BY A U.S. COURT

The suspended aide to the Executive Governor of Ogun state, Abidemi Rufai, has been sentenced to five years in prison over cases bordering identity theft and wire fraud, by a District Court in Western Tacoma, Washington, United States.

This was confirmed in a statement by the United States Attorney’s Office, Western District of Washington, on Monday.

The statement said in part that Rufai, “A 45-year-old resident of Lekki, Nigeria, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to five years in prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for his attempt to steal nearly $2.4m from the United States government, including approximately $500,000 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.”

Until his arrest, Rufai was a Special Assistant to the Ogun State Governor.

According to records filed in the case, since 2017, Rufai stole the personal identifying information of more than 20,000 Americans to submit more than $2m in claims for federally funded disaster relief benefits and fraudulent tax returns.

“The various agencies involved paid out more than $600,000. The largest amount of fraud was committed against the Washington State Employment Security Department, which paid out $350,763 in fraudulent pandemic unemployment claims to account controlled by Rufai. Rufai also submitted fraudulent pandemic unemployment claims in at least 17 other states.