Published 13th Apr, 2022

By Tola Owoyele

Kolawole Bamidele Akande, a Nigerian resident in the United Kingdom, has been extradited to the United States over his alleged involvement in multiple fraud and money laundering.

According to the information available on the website of the US Department of Justice, Akande, who is also known as Patrick Ellis Ferguson, David Louis Wallace and Ramos Joseph Hogan, has made an initial appearance at a United States District Court in North Dakota, The United States, after his extradition on Monday.

Akande has been charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, mail fraud and money laundering.

In the indictment document, Akande is said to be part of a syndicate that executed a complicated ‘computer intrusion scheme’ which led to an unnamed company that is based in Dickinson, North Dakota, being defrauded of close to $348,000 (N144,277,320).

“The defendant, and other co-defendants, fraudulently obtained cheques from the Dickinson company through the mail and deposited these cheques in fraudulently obtained accounts in financial institutions located within the State of Texas,” a statement from the site reads.

“Once the funds from these checks were available for withdrawal and transfer, the defendant, and other co-defendants, withdrew and transferred the funds to conceal and disguise their nature, location, source, and ownership.”

The court ordered that Akande be detained pending trial. The same court sentenced Olawale Sule, another Nigerian and co-defendant in the case who goes by the aliases Brand King Mohammed and John Thomas, to two years’ imprisonment on February 17.

Sule was also ordered to pay restitution on a charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Oluwafemi Elijah Olasode, the third Nigerian involved in the alleged crime, was also sentenced on September 7, 2021. Just like Sule, Olasode was ordered to pay restitution on misprision of felony.

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