Published 4th May, 2022

By Lolade Olu-Ojegbeje

Abidemi Rufai, a former special assistant to Dapo Abiodun, Ogun State governor, has pleaded guilty to his role in a $650 million fraud that happened between 2017 and 2020 in Washington, United States.

According to The Seattle Times, Rufai pleaded guilty before a U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Washington, on Tuesday.

On April 27, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle, Washington, said Rufai used the identities of over 100 Washington residents to steal more than $350,000 in unemployment benefits from the Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD).

This happened during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

According to a statement from the office, Rufai also pleaded guilty to stealing benefits from other states, as well as another $250,000 from other federal programs.

It was also stated that Rufai filed fraudulent claims worth $1.7 million in federal tax refunds between 2017 and 2020, out of which $90,877 was paid to him.

The former aide has agreed to repay the stolen funds, though it was not clear how he hopes to do that.

“He has agreed to disclose all of his assets and to cooperate in US government efforts to recover on those assets. At this point we don’t know what kind of recovery will result,” said Emily Langlie, a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson.

Rufai filed multiple unemployment claims using a feature of Gmail, Google’s email service, that let him use a single email account, altered by the addition of periods to the original address.

Prosecutors have agreed to recommend no more than six years in prison for him, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Rufai was arrested in May 2021, almost a year after ESD officials announced the fraud, at New York’s Kennedy International Airport, as he was about to flee to Nigeria.

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