Abidemi Rufai, a former aide to the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, has admitted stealing the identities of 20,000 Americans to claim $2million in disaster relief including $350,000 in COVID benefits.
Rufai, 45, pleaded guilty in US District Court in Tacoma to stealing Social Security numbers and other personal data from residents of Washington State to pocket around $600,000, according to reports.
At the time, Rufai was working as a special assistant to governor Abiodun before his May 2021 arrest at New York’s Kennedy airport when he was due to fly home to Nigeria.
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The main target was the Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD) which paid out $350,763 in fraudulent pandemic claims to accounts controlled by Rufai.
The fraudster also pleaded guilty to stealing benefits from at least 17 other states in previous schemes and took $250,000 from federal programmes.
Since 2017, he had obtained identifying information for more than 20,000 Americans, submitted $2million in claims for disaster relief and other federal benefits, and received more than $600,000, prosecutors said.
He tried to receive more than $1.7million in IRS tax refunds by submitting 675 false claims, from which he received $90,877.
The convict employed a feature of Gmail, Google’s free email service that let him use a single email account, altered by the addition of periods to the address, to file multiple unemployment claims.
Rufai exploited this by using the altered email addresses to create multiple accounts in the system Washington uses to authenticate online users.
He then filed for the benefits using the real identities of Washington residents, with any emails sent by the ESD on behalf of the claimants all routed into his inbox.
The fraudster exploited a loophole through Google’s Gmail service which allowed him to register multiple email addresses linked to one account.
Wire fraud in relation to a presidentially declared major disaster or emergency is punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Aggravated identity theft is punishable by two years in prison to follow any prison term imposed on another charge.
Prosecutors have agreed to recommend no more than 71 months in prison. The recommendation is not binding on US District Judge Benjamin H. Settle, who will determine the appropriate sentence on August 15, 2022, after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
Abidemi Rufai’s case was investigated by the FBI, with assistance from the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations, Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, and the United States Small Business Administration Office of the Inspector General.
The Washington Employment Security Department is cooperating in the investigation.
