Published 23rd Feb, 2022

By Emmanuel Uti

A United States court has postponed the trial of Abidemi Rufai, a Nigerian politician, until May 31, 2022, after the prosecution submitted more evidence of fraud against him.

Rufai, a suspended aide to Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, faces an allegation of $350,000 fraud. He has been in custody since his arrest in New York in May 2021.

The U.S. government accused him of exploiting the identities of over 100 Washington citizens to steal more than $350,000 in unemployment benefits from the Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD) during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.

The U.S. government arraigned him on 15 charges of fraud and identity theft in the District Court for the Western District of Washington, Tacoma, on June 25, 2021.

In January, his lawyers requested the second rescheduling of his trial from February 1, 2022, to May, in search of more time to study evidence with their client and for extra discussion with the U.S. government.

According to Premium Times, the judge, Benjamin Settle of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Tacoma, approved the defendant’s motion on January 11.

Settle postponed the trial to May 31, 2022, but the defence offered May 17. This is the second postponement of the case within months.

The court had previously given an order moving the trial, initially planned for August 31, 2021, to February 1, 2022.

Both the prosecution and the defence jointly asked for the earlier delay, based on “the voluminous and complex” nature of the material supplied by the government.

The court agreed to the plea and postponed the trial to February 1, 2022. However, the five-month delay granted in August last year was not enough for the defence.

In January, Lance Hester, Rufai’s lawyer, filed for further postponement of the trial until May 2022. This, he said, was to gain more time, not only “to review the discovery with the defendant” and to prepare pretrial motions, but also to “further negotiate a possible resolution of this matter”.

He also said the government had submitted further papers extending the case beyond the basic employment benefit fraud charges.

“The discovery, in this case, is voluminous and complex. The government had produced over 100,000 pages of discovery material,” Hester stated.

Hester said the fresh allegations include “fraudulent claims for tax refunds and disaster relief”.

He said failing to grant the delay “would unduly deprive the defence of the sufficient time required for adequate preparation, taking into consideration the exercise of due diligence”.

Filed to support the application was an agreement that Rufai, who has already been held for nine months awaiting trial, signed with his counsel to relinquish his right to a speedy trial.

Seth Wilkinson, the U.S. government’s prosecuting counsel, was served the application but had no problem with it.

The judge, Settle, agreed with Rufai’s lawyer in his ruling, stating that “failure to grant a continuance under these circumstances would result in a miscarriage of justice”.

“Failure to grant a continuance under these circumstances would result in a miscarriage of justice. The ends of justice outweigh the best interests of the public and the defendant in having the matter brought to trial sooner,” he said.

He then set what he termed a “pretrial motions cutoff date” for April 8, and a pretrial session for May 23 at 2 pm.

The judge scheduled May 3 for the opening of the trial.

Rufai was detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York before boarding an airplane to Amsterdam in May 2020.

He now faces 15 accusations, composed of conspiracy to conduct wire fraud, nine counts of wire fraud, and five counts of aggravated identity theft.

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