An aspirant contesting the Edo State House of Assembly primary election under the All Progressive Congress (APC), Elvis Uadiale, was among other Nigerians indicted for an international fraud scheme in the United States in 2012.
According to a charge sheet filed by the United States Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Mr Uadiale and others were charged with conspiracy to commit internet fraud and money laundering.
The court document, seen revealed details of how Mr Uaduale worked in cahoots with others to defraud hundreds of unsuspecting persons in the U.S. and other countries.
The document revealed that the internet fraud syndicate where Mr Uadiale belonged was using conventional communication media such as mail, telephone, or the internet to swindle consumers seeking loans, employment opportunities, and financial awards, among others.
In February 2019, Price Efosa, a dual citizen of Nigeria and the U.S. and one of the accused persons in the internet fraud scheme, was sentenced to 63 months imprisonment by the Pennsylvania court’s chief judge, Christopher Conner.
Also known as “mass marketers”, the group, based in the U.S., had in 2002 started fleecing victims by exhibiting fake bet winnings, advance fees for fake loan grants and other internet fraud schemes.
Other indicted Nigerians are Susan Osagiede, Itohan Agho-Allen, and Ikejiani Okoloubu, according to a press statement by the U.S. court.
The accused were using their individual experience as former agents of the Western Union and MoneyGram, two international money transfer agencies, to process and cash the received illicit funds without revealing their identities, the court was told.
They were also said to have kept a portion of the proceeds as compensation for their role in the internet fraud deal, after fleecing about 410 victims totalling over $1.4 million.
In another U.S. court document ‘superseding indictment’, Mr Uadiale was said to have operated MoneyGram and Western Union outlets named Diale Investment in the Greater Brooklyn in the New York area between 2008 and 2009.
“During the period May 2008 through September 2008, Western Union senders reported that seven money transfers totalling $9,985 paid at Diale Investments were induced by fraudulent mass marketing activity,” the court document revealed. “Western Union suspended Uadiale’s authority to process Western Union money transfers during the September 2008 Anti Money Laundering compliance issue.”
Mr Uadiale was also said to have recruited an unindicted co-conspirator to process fraudulent money transfers on behalf of him and other unidentified mass marketers. The U.S. superseding indictment sheet noted that in 2008 alone, MoneyGram senders reported that over 100 illicit money transfers totalling over $327,000 paid to Mr Uadiale’s company were fraudulently induced.
“In or about January 2009, MoneyGram terminated Uadiale’s contract to process MoneyGram transfers due, in part, to Uadiale’s apparent complicity in mass marketing fraud and money laundering activity,” the document, signed by Peter Smith, a U.S. Attorney, said.
A decade after he was indicted for money laundering and internet fraud in the US, Mr Uadiale is now running a political race for the APC House of Assembly ticket in Edo, his state of origin. However, some Edo politicians contacted by PREMIUM TIMES described him as an ‘unpopular aspirant spending a lot of money to emerge as the candidate for the legislative seat under the ruling party.’
Despite his alleged involvement in an international fraud scheme, Mr Uadiale was screened by the APC in his state as a qualified aspirant to jostle for the ticket. Neither David Imuse, the Edo APC chairman nor Igbinigie Uwadia, the party’s publicity secretary in the state, answered PREMIUM TIMES calls when contacted over the matter.
But Mr Uadiale said his political enemies were behind his internet fraud story. Although he admitted he was once indicted for money laundering and mail fraud, he was evasive when asked if he was acquitted in the case.
“I’m contesting an election and my opponents can do whatever they wish to do,” Mr Uadiale said. “I know they’re at work but when they’re done, I will definitely start my own.”
When asked to provide evidence that he had been acquitted in the case, Mr Uadiale remained evasive, insisting his name was only mentioned in the international wire fraud allegation.
As of publication time, the U.S. Department of Justice has not responded to PREMIUM TIMES’ public service inquiry on the allegation against Mr Uadiale and the current status of the case.
Should Mr Uduale contest and become a lawmaker, he would not be the first Nigerian to be elected lawmaker despite a U.S. crime indictment.
The late Buruji Kashamu, who was wanted for drug-related crime in the U.S., was elected senator on the platform of Nigeria’s main opposition party, PDP.
As a senator, Mr Kashamu frustrated his extradition to the U.S. using Nigerian courts.
Until his death in 2020, Mr Kashamu was still wanted in the U.S. for his crimes
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