Abidemi Rufai, the suspended aide of Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for fraud by a US court.
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Rufai had attempted to use stolen identities to steal nearly $2.4 million from the United States government, including approximately $500,000 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits.
According to the statement, Rufai admitted a long history of using stolen identities to defraud U.S. disaster programs, including aid for Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and file fraudulent U.S. tax returns.
The 45-year-old convict who pleaded guilty to the charges in May, was said to have succeeded in defrauding 12 US agencies of $600,000 paid out into bank accounts controlled by him.
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Rufai also defrauded the Small Business Administration (SBA) by attempting to obtain Economic Injury Disaster loans (EIDL) tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between April 8, 2020, and June 26, 2020, he submitted 19 fraudulent EIDL applications. SBA paid out $10,000 based on the applications.
Between 2017 and 2020, Rufai attempted to obtain more than $1.7 million in IRS tax refunds by submitting 675 false claims. The IRS paid out $90,877 on these claims.
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 accounts controlled by Rufai. Rufai also submitted fraudulent pandemic unemployment claims in at least 17 other states.
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From the plea agreement with the prosecution, Mr Segun Rufai agreed to pay full restitution of $604,260 to the defrauded agencies.
The trial judge, Benjamin H. Settle reportedly said;
“The motivation was greed, unrestrained greed, and a callousness towards those who have suffered.”
Though Mr Rufai agreed to pay full restitution of $604,260 to the defrauded agencies as revealed in a plea agreement with the prosecution, the US Department of Justice said he “has not fully cooperated with efforts to identify and forfeit assets that could be used for restitution.”
(C)ControlTV2022.
