The Federal High Court in Lagos has granted an application by the Attorney General of the Federation to extradite one Samuel Abiodun to the United States of America to face trial for alleged wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The ruling was made by Justice Akintayo Aluko on June 14, 2024, following the AGF’s application filed and argued by Kehinde Adesola Fagbemi of the Federal Ministry of Justice.
The federal government specifically sought the surrender of Abiodun to face two counts: “Wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code (U.S.C), and Section 1343, carrying a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.” The second charge is “Conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of Title 18, United States Code (U.S.C.), Section 1956(h), carrying a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.”
Abiodun, through his counsel, Demola Adekoya, denied the allegations, and challenged, among others, the court’s power to order his extradition.
But, evaluating the evidence against him, Justice Aluko found that the FG provided sufficient evidence to show that Abiodun had a case to answer in America.
PUNCH
[…] According to a certified true copy of the judgment seen by our correspondent, the respondent denied the allegations of the applicant while claiming that he lived all his life in Nigeria and that he had never travelled to the US.
He claimed to neither have any business or romantic relationship with anyone in the US nor did he commit any offence either in Nigeria or in the US.
He added that he did not co-conspire with anyone to commit money laundering or deal in wire fraud against a student at Kutztown University within the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, identified as J. S. (now deceased as claimed by the applicant).
The respondent said he did not use Snapchat or have a persona of “ALICE_D013” allegedly used to demand money from J.S. and that he had never been tried or convicted by any court in Nigeria for the offence being alleged against him.
Furthermore, he claimed that he was just a victim of persecution for being a friend to someone who was tagged as “a friend from WhatsApp” while conducting a lawful business operated by a registered cryptocurrency platform called Binance with which he is lawfully registered.
