Advance Fee Fraud: Ade Bendel Bags 6yrs Jail Term
By Davidson Iriekpen, 12.19.2007

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An Ikeja High Court has sentenced an Advance Fee Fraud (419) kingpin, Adedeji Alumile (a.k.a Ade Bendel), to six years imprisonment for defrauding an Egyptian General, Abdel Azim Attia of over $500,000 (N65million) in 2003.
Delivering judgment on the matter, Justice Mufutau Olokooba, described the accused person's action as an international embarrassment to the nation, adding that not giving him a full weight of the law would be inappropriate.
He was also ordered to refund US$500,000 that he defrauded the complainant.
"The offence is an international embarrassment to the nation and the courts do have no mercy for such offence. To serve as deterrent to present generation and upcoming generation.
Not giving the accused a full weight of the law is inappropriate, I hereby sentence the accused to six years in imprisonment on one charge," he said.
He had, however, almost completed the sentence, having being in detention since 2003.
Earlier in his allocutus, counsel to the accused, Mr Olalekan Ojo, said "I want to state the following fact: the accused person was a first time offender. A young man of 41years, with a wife and children.
The accused made full restitution and paid $200,000 to the complainant through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It is important that the accused is given full rehabilitation. The offence for which he was found guilty has a maximum sentence of seven years."
Ade Bendel was arrested and arraigned by EFCC and charged alongside one Chief Olafemi Ayeni in 2003, claiming to be the owner of World-wide Company in charge of American currencies.
The accused with one Olafemi Ayeni, upon going to the office of the complainant, told him he wanted to buy some chemicals that would be used to clean security covers from the notes in boxes, for which the complainant parted with the sum.
He later found out that the organisation was fake, and the so-called chemicals only existed in the imagination of the swindlers.
Attia, who was in court when the accused person was convicted was, however, full of praises for the EFCC and the court for the judgment.


http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com/paperfrmes.html

whats inconsistent here?

Now my question is where is the Justice in jailing this guy for 6yrs when those who defrauded their State of billions of Naira over a peiod of years are going home with 6months sentence, or even 24hrs (Alams).

Its either the 6months given to politicians is used as reference point such that people like Ade Bendel will recieve only 2weeks sentence or we make the Penalties given to politicians stiffer in line with those of everyone else.

Should their be one law for politicians and another for everyone else??.

Is this inconsistency not devoid of Justice.

Lets hear your thoughts on this.

babasin:

whats inconsistent here?

LOL what a quick reply, well see my questions above

@ Mckren, while i understand your point on the supposed lenient political judgements, but Advance Fee Fraud and Money Laundering i believe are two seperate offences and covered by different penal codes, so making a conclusion of inconisistency prima facie is wrong.

Your point is noted and really we wait for verdicts from the current cases ie Ibori, Fayose. Pertaining to Alams, he has a criminal record, that might not be such a big thing in today's Nigeria, you just wait the way we are evolving such things will definately count, at least he cant via for any public office in Nigeria.

ok. but there is no clear rule that:

1. if you steal 500mil naira you get 6months

2. if you steal 1bil naira you get  12months. etc

These judgement are at discreation of judges, EFCC, arguement of defence lawyers etc.

Conclusion: It is not clear-cut but that does not make it inconsistent until we establish clear 'sentencing'.

I propose as below:

[list]
[li]N1 to N100,00  - 6months in prison no fine[/li]

[li]N100,000 to N1ml  - 1year in prison no fine[/li]

[li]N1ml to N20mil - 5yrs in prison no fine[/li]

[li]N21mil to 100mil -10yrs in prison no fine[/li]

[li]N101mil to N999mil - 20yrs in prison no fine[/li]

[li]N1bil over - 30yrsin prison no fine[/li]
[/list]

It does not matter if you are first offender, you return part of the loot, you invest money in good project for your people, 419, fraud, corruption.

what matters is AMOUNT of money involved

@Buluti

This whole thing is a bit confusing

Obviously the art of transfering public funds to private accounts is in itself Money Laundering

But take Ayo Fayose for example who set up State Poultry Projects merely as a conduit pipe for state funds, is it wrong to classify that as advance fee fraud? Well the above sounds like deception which is the dictionary definition of Fraud.

So buluti if as you suggested there are different penal codes for Money Laundering and Advanced fee fraud, should Fayose if found guilty recieve a synergy of both or should he have a soft landing because he has political followers??.

Or Should the likes of Ade Bendel appear in court with their supporters so as to get a relatively fair sentence??

The likes of Alams and Tafa Balogun would have had inflated projects which they would present as smoke screen in other to have funds to divert that in itself is deception and thus an Advanced Fee Fraud.

Then the art of secretely diverting the money to private accounts is Money Laundering, so this people should be recieving a combination of the Punishment for Advanced Fee Fraud and Money Laundering.

Yet Alams receieved a customized senetnce that saw him leave jail withing 24hrs.

Balogun sentenced to 6 Months

While Ade Bendel recieves 6years

Is there one law for public office holders and then another for everyone else?

Another issue here is while Ade Bendel would have defrauded one individual, politicians defraud the masses.

I would go further and call it miscarriage of justice. Agreed, the accused was involved in a fraudulent activity, so too was the complainant (Egyptian General):

"The accused with one Olafemi Ayeni, upon going to the office of the complainant, told him he wanted to buy some chemicals that would be used to clean security covers from the notes in boxes, for which the complainant parted with the sum."

Is cleaning security covers from bank notes now a legitimate business activity??

If the Accused (1st accused) has now being tried and jailed, the Complainant (2nd accused) should also be tried (and jailed) for criminal conspiracy relating to 'cleaning security covers from bank notes', the source of which must be fraudulent/criminal. If the authorities are not willing to charge both parties and justice meted out equitably, the case should not have gone to trial in the first instance or if it did thrown out by the judge.

Being an Egyptian (non-Nigerian) and a General I guess had a lot to do with it.

Dumb-ass-kissing, sell-your-people-out prosecution/judgement.

@ADint

LOL thats a new dimension that am not aware off, is that really what happened??

Interesting.

Please what notes were they trying to clean is it Nigerian currency?

It will be funny if a matter that has to do with Nigeria's National security was handled like this.

'Cleaning security covers' otherwise known as 'wash-wash' or 'washing' is a well know scam by fraudsters to part fellow criminally minded individuals of money. The currency in question is usually USD but, could also be £s or Naira, the story usually is of the sort that they intercepted a large quantity(millions) of bank notes(e.g from a bullion van), but in the process the notes got stained from the security measures put in place to make the notes un-usable.

They of course know of a chemical that can wash off the security ink, of which they only have a very small quantity - this is where the request for money to buy chemicals comes in. There are other variations of the scam, but crucially the intended 'victim' is aware the bank notes were acquired illegitimately. 

The funny thing though is that the notes used as sample and apparently 'washed' in the presence of the 'victim' (fellow conspirator) are real but have been discoloured with an easily washable dye, which they then proceed to wash with some of the little chemical they could afford. The notes after being 'washed' are then given to the 'victim' to go and spend to prove it is real, which of course it is.

I do not see how a 6 year sentenece is not just in this case. The man knowing full well that what he was getting himself into was illegal, went ahead and is now to serve the consequences. Infact, I believe 6 years is just a slap on the wrist considering the effect this sort of crime has had on the communities and country as a whole.
Yes, the legal system does not serve it out the same all the time but we should applaud the system for the few good times it does get it right. I mean this is Nigeria we are talking about here.

@Mckren,

It is not the job of the EFCC to hand down sentences or to specify the number of years anyone should serve.

Their job is to investigate and prosecute and they have been doing their own part of the job.

Afam:

@Mckren,

It is not the job of the EFCC to hand down sentences or to specify the number of years anyone should serve.

Their job is to investigate and prosecute and they have been doing their own part of the job.

I am obviously not holding EFCC responsible for these inconsistencies.

Just saying stealing, fraud, money laundery should get relatively fair court verdicts regardless of who is involved.

Just saying stealing, fraud, money laundery should get relatively fair court verdicts regardless of who is involved.

who determine what is RELATIVELY FAIR?

on till we have clear-cut sentencing, we should expect different sentences for varied amount of MONEY stolen/fraud/corrupted/etc