US-based Nigerian nurse Nekpen Soyemi who was presented as surety for Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun’s aide, Abidemi Rufai, is a suspected fraudster, the United States Department of Justice has said.
Mr Rufai is currently enmeshed in a $350,000 COVID-19 unemployment fraud in the United States.
Acting US attorney Tessa Gorma in a letter to the US magistrate judge in eastern district of New York, Ramon Reyes, said the “surety is suspect in an investigation into an email impersonation scheme.”
Rufai was denied bail last Wednesday after his brother Alaba Rufai, who is listed in court records, was unable to place the $300,000 surety bond for his bail.
Last Friday, Rufai’s lawyer then presented Soyemi, a family friend of Rufai, as surety, saying she could post the bond.
The court delayed Rufai’s release until May 25 to give enough time to federal prosecutors to appeal the order.
“First, the FBI has conducted research into the Surety and has learned information indicating that the Surety is not an appropriate person to perform that role,” Gorma said in a letter obtained by Premium Times.
“In 2015, the Surety’s bank (Bank of America) issued a report naming the Surety as a suspect in an investigation into an email impersonation scheme.
“According to the bank’s report, a person purporting to be a donor deposited $134,000 into the bank account of a legitimate nonprofit. The ‘donor’ (who was never identified) then contacted the non-profit and stated that some of the deposited funds were intended for a different recipient.
“The donor asked the non-profit to wire the excess funds to three different accounts, one of which was a Bank of America account in the Surety’s name. The report indicates that the Surety then made cash withdrawals of the proceeds at two different B of A locations. The Surety did not respond to inquiries from Bank of America.
“Second, FBI’s research was unable to confirm that the Surety owns the listed real property. Mortgage and deed records for the property indicate that it was last purchased by an individual with the initials L.S.G. on November 7, 2014.”
She further said that the FBI could not locate records showing that the surety has an interest in the property.
