The United States government has submitted 97,000-page evidence against the suspended aide to Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun state, Abidemi Rufai, who was indicted for alleged conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
Rufai who is regarded as one of the ‘big boys’ residing in the Lekki area of Lagos, was arrested on May 14 at the JFK airport in New York following his indictment in a $350,000 COVID-19 unemployment fraud in the United States.
According to the 97,000-page materials submitted at the U.S. District for the Western District of Washington at Tacoma, on July 26, Rufai allegedly used the stolen identities of more than 100 Washington residents to file fraudulent claims with the Employment Security Department (ESD) for pandemic-related unemployment benefits.
Acting US Attorney Tessa M. Gorman had said Rufai filed fraudulent unemployment claims with Hawaii, Wyoming, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, and Pennsylvania, using variations of a single email address in a manner intended to evade automatic detection by fraud systems.
The agreed application filed on August 3, 2021, apparently based its assessment of the complexity of the case on the volume and nature of the evidence filed by the prosecution.
“On July 26, 2021, the government produced approximately 97,000 pages of material. In addition, the government is in the process of executing two additional electronic search warrants.
The discovery includes electronic documents in a variety of formats” the document stated in part
It added much of the material “contains personal identifying information or sensitive financial information.”
Rufai was arraigned before the court on June 25, 2021 where he pleaded not guilty to all counts. The court then scheduled trial for August 31, 2021 and set a pretrial motions deadline of July 23, 2021.
