U.S. govt seeks forfeiture of Ogun gov’s aide, Abidemi Rufai’s $600,000 proceeds of fraud

The United States government has asked the District Court in Tacoma to order the forfeiture of Abidemi Rufai’s $604,260 being the interest that accrued from his commission of wire fraud.

The amount translates to about N252 million when converted at official exchange rate and N392 million based on the prevailing rate in the volatile parallel market.

Mr Rufai, an official of the Ogun State government arrested in May 2021, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Rufai admitted using stolen identities to claim hundreds of thousands of dollars in pandemic-related unemployment benefits, U.S. Attorney, Nick Brown, said.

He has been in custody since his arrest at New York’s JFK airport in May 2021. At the time of his arrest, Mr Rufai was the Special Assistant to the Governor of Nigeria’s Ogun State.

According to the plea agreement, since 2017, Mr Rufai unlawfully obtained the personal identifying information for more than 20,000 Americans to submit more than $2 million in claims for federally funded benefits under a variety of relief programs. The various agencies involved paid out more than $600,000.

In a fresh move, the U.S. government through its lawyer, Nicholas Brown, on 4 August, urged the court to accede to a forfeiture request.

According to court filings seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Brown based the application on the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure of the United States.

The document reminded the court of Mr Rufai’s guilty plea to the fraud on 3 May 2022.

The court papers highlighted how Mr Rufai defrauded U.S. citizens of various sums through the Washington Employment Security Department where $350,763 was stolen.

At Arkansas Division of Workforce Services, $10,166, was stolen, while US Small Business Administration lost $10,000 to Mr Rufai’s fraudulent activities, amongst other key US institutions.

“The sum of these amounts is $604,260. Therefore, the United States is requesting an order of forfeiture in that amount, requesting the total proceeds defendant obtained from his wire fraud scheme,” the application read in part.

The government says it will “request the Attorney General apply any amounts it collects toward satisfaction of this forfeited sum to the restitution that is ordered.”