| Owolabi
Abdul Consummates Plea To Spoofing With
Forfeiture of $100,000, May Sentencing
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Jan 21– Alade Kazeem
Sodiq, with a Yoruba
interpreter, pleaded guilty on
November 19, 2020 before U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
Katherine Polk
Failla to
having "spoofed" banks.
On April 28, his
co-defendant Habeeb Audu
appeared before Judge Failla.
Audu's lawyer said his client
was considering a plea deal
but could not agree to all of
it. So he wanted a bail
hearing.
Audu
offered a bond of $200,000
co-signed by a sister working
for the Newark NJ school
system. But the Assistant US
Attorney said Audu would flee
to his native Nigeria which,
he said, with the US has an
extradition treaty in name
only.
The AUSA
said the conspiracy was
discovered after a tip from
the Italian national police,
and ranged not only to Nigeria
and Ghana but also the UAE.
After taking a
break, Judge Failla said she
could not find a way to grant
bail, given the ties to other
places. "I am denying the bail
application."
Judge Failla said
in two weeks and a half she
can put in requests for trials
in the third quarter.
Sodiq and
presumably Audu were able to
make banks believe that his
phone calls came from the
numbers that other customers
had on file, then got debit
cards. Among the victims was
an Ohio restaurant chain, for
$2 million.
Judge Failla held
the change of plea proceeding.
Inner City Press covered it.
And on
April 7 Sodiq showed up to be
sentenced, Inner City Press
also covered it. There was
talk of him being deported
after his prison term is over.
Judge Failla read out the
statement - and was then told
that Sodiq hadn't understand
it. She asked, How far back do
I have to rewind?
And here it was:
50 months in prison, Otisville
preferred, and one year of
supervised release /
deportation. Later the US
Attorney's Office put out a
press release, the
lost-in-translation issue not
in it.
On January 21,
2022 co-defendant Yusuf
Owolabi Abdul came before
Judge Failla to plead guilty.
But his lawyer asked to put it
off, saying that the
forfeiture order of the US
Attorney's Office was
different than what he had
explained to his client.
On January
28, Owolabi
Abdul was back
and so was
Inner City
Press. Now the
forfeiture had
been agreed,
at $100,000,
and the plea
after some
patient
explanation by
Judge Failla
of what
conspiracy
means, was
accepted.
Sentencing
will be in
May.
The case is US v.
Sodiq, 19-cr-462 (Failla)
***
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