Governor’s ex-aide fingered in $350,000 fraud in US, pleads guilty
A former Senior Special Assistant to Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Abidemi Rufai, has been fingered in a $350,763 fraud in the United States.
A report by American tabloid, Seattle Times, says the 45-year-old Rufai pleaded guilty to the offence in US District Court in Tacoma on Tuesday that he used stolen Social Security numbers and other personal data to file $350,763 in fake claims for pandemic unemployment benefits in 2020.
According to the medium, “Rufai has been in custody since his May 2021 arrest at New York’s Kennedy International Airport, while trying to fly to Nigeria being on the employ of the Ogun State governor at the time.
The medium also reported that: “Rufai also pleaded guilty to stealing benefits from other states, as well as another $250,000 from other federal programs, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office statement.”
Between 2017 and 2020, Rufai reportedly filed fraudulent claims for $1.7 million in federal tax refunds, of which $90,877 was paid out.
The medium quoted the US office as saying that Rufai has agreed to repay the stolen funds, though it wasn’t clear how he would make payments or whether his agreement meant he still had access to the stolen funds.
“He has agreed to disclose all of his assets and to cooperate in US government efforts to recover on those assets,” U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Emily Langlie said in an email Wednesday.
“At this point we don’t know what kind of recovery will result,” the office added.
The medium further reported that: “Roughly $270 million stolen from the Employment Security Department is believed to have been transferred overseas before investigators or banks could freeze the funds, state officials have said. About $380 million has been recovered, ESD officials have said.
“Rufai’s 2021 arrest came almost a year to the day after ESD officials announced the fraud, the biggest in state history, and said they would temporarily suspend unemployment benefit payments.”
“That suspension and the subsequent tightening of filing requirements contributed to massive delays in benefit payments to tens of thousands of Washingtonians laid off during the first weeks of the pandemic.”
According to the medium, “Rufai’s arrest revealed important details as to how criminals could bypass ESD’s security systems using a simple feature of Google’s free Gmail service.
“Gmail allows account holders to create dozens of additional email addresses simply by adding periods to the original address, investigator have said. Because Gmail doesn’t recognize periods, any emails sent to those so-called dot variant addresses are all routed to the inbox of the original Gmail address.
“Rufai used the dot variant addresses to create multiple accounts in the Washington state system that authenticates online users of government services, investigators have said. He then filed for benefits with the ESD using stolen personal identities of real Washington residents. One reason the ruse was effective is that any emails sent by ESD on behalf of these claimants were all routed to Rufai’s inbox.”
