By Chioma Okezie-Okeh
Sometime in 2014, Mr. Olufolajimi Abegunde got an opportunity to relocate to the United States from Nigeria to pursue a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
Upon graduating with the class of 2016, he discovered opportunities in the remittances industry and incorporated FJ Williams Inc. doing business as (DBA) TranzAlert, a financial technology start-up. Unfortunately, Abegunde is now trapped in prison where he is serving 78 months imprisonment for a crime he claimed that he did not commit.
Recounting how he ended up in jail, Abegunde, who has served 50 months out of his sentence, is pleading with President Muhammadu Buhari to save him from what he described as the most inhuman treatment inflicted on him inside U.S. prison.
He said: “My travails began sometime in August 2016 when a long-time friend, Ayodeji Ojo, visited me in the U.S. from Nigeria, along with his pregnant wife and infant daughter. Ojo and his family were accommodated at my home in Atlanta, Georgia.
“At the time of the visit, Ojo had a wholly legitimate cheque of $26,900 that was issued to him by Bank of America. He intended to cash the cheque and utilise the funds for expenses associated with his family’s trip, including medical expenses related to his pregnant wife.
“After being unsuccessful in his attempts to cash the cheque at multiple Bank of America branches, due to the relatively large size of the cheque, Ojo was advised by a Bank of America banker to open a new bank account at another bank, to let the cheque go through the clearing process before the funds would become available to him.
“Ojo chose Wells Fargo Bank, and at Wells Fargo he was told that he was required to provide a valid identification document, and contact information for correspondence in the form of a U.S. mailing address and a U.S. mobile phone number.
“Ojo informed the Wells Fargo banker that he was a visitor in the U.S. and did not have a U.S. mailing address and a U.S. mobile phone number. After Ojo asked me, I granted him permission to utilise my address and mobile phone number to open the account.
“So, the bank account was opened on August 29, 2016, and Ojo was able to access the funds two days after without any challenges. From 2014 to 2016, there was a financial crisis in Nigeria around that time, and the government had stopped providing U.S. dollars through official channels.
“So, people and businesses that needed U.S. dollars had no choice but to access it through informal channels, which was a fancy way of saying the black market in Nigeria.
“After about three months that my friend left my house and back to Nigeria, he needed to buy some U.S. dollars, he approached one Leke Adenuga who, after agreeing on the rate, requested that he provide his U.S. bank account (that he opened using my address and U.S. mobile phone number) for the deposit of the agreed U.S. dollar amount of $9,000. In other words, Ojo simply engaged in a foreign exchange transaction where he gave up the Nigerian naira equivalent of $9,000 for the actual $9,000, which Ojo neither accessed nor spent.”
He claimed that all was well till days later when he received a call from one Brian Ancona, an investigator with Wells Fargo Bank, stating that a certain Luis Ramos Alonso had unintentionally deposited $9,000 into Ojo’s bank account, and was seeking a reversal of the $9,000 deposit.
“I told Ancona that the account owner was in Nigeria, and attempted a three-way call to connect Ancona with Ojo (the owner of the account). The effort was, however, unsuccessful. I eventually got through to Ojo and conveyed Ancona’s urgent message regarding the reversal, in which Ojo immediately agreed and authorized the reversal of the $9,000 deposit. The $9,000 was reversed and I thought that was the end of the story.
“However, on March 15, 2017, two FBI agents – Kevin Hall and Tyson Fowler of the Atlanta Field Division of the FBI – visited my home to inquire about Ojo. One of the agents pulled out a copy of Ojo’s Nigerian passport data page, and asked if I knew the bearer of the passport data page. I confirmed to the agents that Ojo was a long-time friend who I had accommodated during Ojo’s visit to the U.S. in August 2016.
“I also confirmed to them that I had granted Ojo permission to utilise my address and mobile phone number to open a bank account with Wells Fargo Bank for the reason that Ojo resides in Nigeria and neither had a U.S. address nor a U.S. mobile phone number.
“I offered the agents full cooperation by providing them Ojo’s contact information and also ensured that Ojo contacted the agents’ shortly after they departed my home. I thought that was the end of the story.”
According to Abegunde, his freedom was unexpectedly taken away from him on February 7, 2018, when he went to the international airport to change his flight schedule.
He further said: “I had intended to travel to the Dominican Republic but due to circumstances beyond my control, the trip was rescheduled. So, I went to the airport to reschedule the flight. When I was done with the flight change, and was walking away from the check-in counter, all of a sudden, two men in plain clothes who identified themselves as Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officers that were acting on behalf of the FBI accosted me with so much force that I was both confused and terrified. I kept telling them they had the wrong person. After placing me in handcuffs, they took out my wallet from my pocket, took out my drivers license, and then brought out an arrest warrant to confirm my identity.
“The initial indictment charged me and Ojo with the same exact counts of wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. Court records show that there was absolutely no evidence to support these charges.
“At the bond hearing held on June 25, 2018, under cross-examination by my attorney at the time, FBI Special Agent David Palmer, one of the lead case agents, was questioned regarding the bank account that Ojo opened using my address. My attorney asked if there was anything illegal about that? Is there anything illegal about using an address you know, as a point of reference to a bank to open an account? Agent Palmer said no, as long as the real owner permitted it.
“Again, at the trial, the testimony of one of the FBI agents that investigated the case, Special Agent Marcus Vance, corroborated the facts that Ojo’s account was opened August 29, 2016. A legitimate cheque of $26,900 was deposited into the account on the same day; and that there was no evidence that the check was associated with the July 25, 2016, fraud in particular, or any form of fraud in general.
“Wells Fargo investigator, Brian Ancona, also confirmed during the trial that his calls to my phone led to the reversal of the $9,000 deposit because Ojo did not protest when asked to return the money.
“The entire case was centred on the infamous $9,000 transaction. However, from the indictment to my sentencing, there is no evidence whatsoever that reflects any link between me and the $9,000 transaction. Rather, all the evidence on the record points to the fact that I was neither directly nor remotely connected to the $9,000 transaction. No evidence was also found on my seized devices to show money laundering, or any involvement with BEC, romance scams or fraud in general.”
He also added that the testimony by Mr. Theodore Vlahkis, an expert witness from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, as well as testimony from Special Agent Marcus Vance, made it abundantly clear that his business, FJ Williams Inc. DBA TranzAlert, was in full compliance with its regulatory obligations and so did not violate any anti-money laundering policy.
“Despite all these facts, U.S. District Court Judge Sheryl Lipman sentenced me to 78 months in prison and ordered that I pay $57,911.62 in restitution despite no evidence that I knowingly received illicit funds. I appealed the case and the Appeal Court didn’t look at the case at all nor consider any of the evidence on the record. I then approached the Supreme Court. They declined to pick up the case. So, I am working on another appeal right now. If history is a guide, I am not likely to get justice through the U.S. Court system. All the evidence is documented and available online for the whole world to see.
“I am using this medium to beg the Attorney-General of Nigeria to contact the U.S. Attorney-General to demand a review of my case,” he pleaded.