$1.4m Fraud: Appeal Court Upholds Conviction Of Businessman
A three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, on Thursday, December 19, 2024, upheld the conviction and sentencing of a businessman, Kolawole Adedayo Erinle, to 12 years imprisonment for $1.4m fraud.
Erinle and his company, Rinde-Remdex Nigeria Limited, were first arraigned before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, on March 11, 2022.
Though he pleaded “not guilty”, the trial could not be concluded before the retirement of Justice Taiwo, thereby prompting the re-assignment of the case to Justice Oshodi.
He was subsequently re-arraigned on October 28, 2022 before Justice Oshodi on a three-count charge bordering on conspiracy, retention of proceeds of criminal conduct, and obtaining money under false pretence to the tune of $1,410,000 (One Million Four-Hundred and Ten Thousand United States Dollars).
One of the charges reads: “Kolawole Adedayo Erinle and Edward Dada (still at large), sometime in 2019 at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired to falsely represent yourselves as J.E. Dunn, a local construction company in America, with intent to gain monetary advantage in the sum of $1,410,000 (One Million Four-Hundred and Ten Thousand United States Dollars) by creating a fake domain name jedunn.org and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act No 14, 2006.”
He, again, pleaded “not guilty” to the charge.
In the course of the trial, the prosecution counsel, T.J. Banjo had called four witnesses, through whom several documentary evidence were presented to prove the case against him and his company.
The prosecution also presented evidence to prove that Erinle had been convicted for fraud in the United States of America ,USA.
Justice Oshodi had, on February 10, 2023, revoked the bail earlier granted to the defendant, following an application by the prosecution showing that he never perfected the bail conditions earlier granted him by Justice Taiwo.
After the prosecution had closed its case, Erinle took to the dock to defend himself.
Led in evidence by his counsel, Lawal Pedro, SAN, he had denied the allegations brought against him by the prosecution.
However, under-cross-examination by the prosecution, he had admitted that he was indeed an ex-convict in the US, and spent 23 months in prison.
He had also expressed a change of mind to restitute his victim, saying, “I am sorry”.
Delivering judgment on September 26, 2023, Justice Oshodi had declared the defendant and his company guilty as charged.
The Judge had also held that the prosecution effectively proved the case against them beyond every reasonable doubt.
Justice Oshodi had, therefore, sentenced him to five years on count two, and 12 years on count three, with the sentences to run concurrently from February 10, 2023 when he was remanded by the court.
The company, Rinde-Remdex Nigeria Limited, was fined N50 million and was ordered to be wound up by the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, with the proceeds forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The convicts were also ordered to make restitution to the victim.
All the property and vehicles recovered from them by the EFCC were ordered to be sold and applied as restitution to the victim, through the FBI.
However, dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial court, Erinle, through his counsel, had approached the appellate court challenging the judgment. Counsel for the EFCC, T.J. Banjo had, however, urged the appellate court to dismiss the appeal as lacking in merit and to uphold the judgement of the lower court.
In a lead judgment delivered by Justice Danlami Zama Senchi, the three-man panel of Justices unanimously upheld the submission of the EFCC, held that the appeal lacked merit and also affirmed the judgment of the trial court.
