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Owolabi Abdul Near Plea To Spoofing Banks Must Postpone Due to Forfeiture Issue

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.

The case is US v. Sodiq, 19-cr-462 (Failla)

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