NEW YORK: Abidemi Rufai, SSA to Ogun State Governor, Arrested For Fraud In The US

A Nigerian national, Abidemi Rufai has been caught by the operatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in New York on the allegations of wire fraud in the United States.<br /><br />According to a report on the US Department of Justice website, Rufai was arrested Friday evening at JFK Airport in New York on a criminal complaint charging him with wire fraud for his scheme to steal over $350,000 in unemployment benefits from the Washington State Employment Security Department.<br /><br />Mr. Rufai is popularly known as Sandy Tang, 42, is a Senior Special Adviser to the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, and the reports said that he made his first appearance Saturday, May 15, 2021 in New York. <br /><br />“Since the first fraud reports to our office in April 2020, we have worked diligently with a federal law enforcement team to track down the criminals who stole funds designated for pandemic relief,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Gorman. “This is the first, but will not be the last, significant arrest in our ongoing investigation of ESD fraud.”<br /><br />​<br /><br />The criminal complaint alleges that Rufai used the stolen identities of more than 100 Washington residents to file fraudulent claims with ESD for pandemic-related unemployment benefits. Rufai also filed fraudulent unemployment claims with Hawaii, Wyoming, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, and Pennsylvania. Rufai used variations of a single e-mail address in a manner intended to evade automatic detection by fraud systems. By using this practice, Rufai made it appear that each claim was connected with a different email account.<br /><br />Rufai caused the fraud proceeds to be paid out to online payment accounts such as ‘Green Dot’ accounts, or wired to bank accounts controlled by “money mules.” Some of the proceeds were then mailed to the Jamaica, New York address of Rufai’s relative. Law enforcement determined more than $288,000 was deposited into an American bank account controlled by Rufai between March and August 2020.<br /><br />“Greed