The Ogun State governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has ordered the immediate suspension of his Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties, Abidemi Rufai, who was arrested in the United States for alleged involvement in over $350,000 unemployment fraud during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.
Abidemi Rufai, 42 was arrested at the JFK Airport in New York on his way out of the US and has appeared before a court on May 15. He is scheduled for a detention hearing on Wednesday, May 19.
The Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman in a statement on Monday alleges that Rufai aka Sandy Tang 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.
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.
Rufai, if found guilty, may spend a long time in prison as Wire fraud is punishable by up to thirty years when it relates to benefits paid in connection with a presidentially-declared disaster or emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
In view of the gravity of these allegations, the governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin, said the suspension of Rufai became imperative in order to allow him answer the charges levelled against him by the US government.
The Governor restated his commitment to an open, transparent, accountable and morally upright administration and will not condone any act bordering on criminality by anyone.
