A Nigerian politician and real estate merchant, Abidemi Rufai, popularly known as Ruffy, has been arrested in the United States of America for wire fraud in the tune of over $350,000.

Rufai, who is the former House of Representatives aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was arrested Friday at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport by federal agents as he allegedly attempted to leave the country.

Abidemi Rufai

According to information provided on the website of the United States Department of Justice, Rufai appeared in federal court Saturday on charges that he used the identities of more than 100 Washington residents to steal more than $350,000 in unemployment benefits from the Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD) during the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

“This is the first, but will not be the last, significant arrest in our ongoing investigation of ESD fraud,” said Tessa Gorman, acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, in a statement Monday.

The 42-year-old politician is scheduled for a detention hearing Wednesday. The case will be prosecuted in federal court in Tacoma.

“I want to thank our partners in law enforcement for their continued efforts to hold criminals accountable for their attacks on our unemployment insurance system,” said ESD Acting Commissioner Cami Feek in a statement.

The criminal complaint alleged that Rufai also filed fraudulent unemployment claims with Hawaii, Wyoming, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, and Pennsylvania.  He alegedly used variations of a single e-mail address in a manner intended to evade automatic detection by fraud systems.  By using this practice, he made it appear that each claim was connected with a different email account.

Rufai also reportedly caused the fraud proceeds to be paid out to online payment accounts such as ‘Green Dot’ accounts, or wired to bank accounts controlled by “money mules.”  Some of the proceeds were then mailed to the Jamaica, New York address of Rufai’s relative.  Law enforcement determined more than $288,000 was deposited into an American bank account controlled by Rufai between March and August 2020.

Federal investigators initially identified Rufai through a single Gmail account he used to file 102 claims for pandemic-related unemployment benefits from ESD, as well as claims at programs in other states, according to the complaint.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to thirty years in prison when it relates to benefits paid in connection with a presidentially-declared disaster or emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The charges contained in the complaint are only allegations.  A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case was investigated by the FBI, with assistance from the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG).