More troubles appear to be brewing for the suspended aide to Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun, Abidemi Rufai currently enmeshed in a $350,000 unemployment benefits fraud scandal in the United States of America.
TODAY SPLASH learnt that the United States Department of Justice has written to the United States Magistrate Judge in Eastern District of New York, Ramon Reyes, claiming that the surety provided by Abiodun’s aide is a suspected fraudster.
The Acting U.S. Attorney, Tessa Gorma, in a letter said the “surety is suspect in an investigation into an email impersonation scheme.”
TODAY SPLASH reports the 42-year-old was arrested last week on his way back to Nigeria at the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York based on criminal complaint.
He was subsequently charged with defrauding Washington State Employment Security Department of over $350,000.
The US Department of Justice, District of Washington had said Rufai used the pseudonym Sandy Tang and the stolen identities of more than 100 Washington residents to file fraudulent claims with Employment Security Department for unemployment benefits last year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The criminal complaint also said Rufai mailed some of the proceeds of his fraud to the Jamaica and New York addresses of his relatives with more than $288,000 deposits between March and August 2020.
The Federal Magistrates’ in New York, USA, had earlier rejected the bail application because the suspect’s brother, Alaba Rufai, who is listed in the court records, told the court that he could not afford the $300,000 surety bond for his bail.
