Olalekan Ponle, a Nigerian held in the United States for alleged multi-million-dollar fraud, has been indicted by the grand jury, a group of lawyers empowered to conduct legal proceedings and investigate potential criminal conduct.
Mr Ponle, popularly known as Woodberry, alongside Ramoni Abbas, also known as Hushpuppi, was arrested in the United Arab Emirate on June 10 for multiple fraud charges after a raid by operatives of the Dubai crime unit.
According to the complaint, an unnamed Chicago company was defrauded into sending wire transfers totalling $15.2 million.
Companies based in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New York and California also were victims of the fraud, prosecutors say.
We reported how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) nabbed Mr Ponle through details accessed from his WhatsApp, iPhone and Bitcoin transactions. He was extradited to the United States on July 2.
The 29-year-old is currently facing charges bordering on wire fraud Conspiracy at a United States District Court sitting in Illinois.
His first appearance in court was on July 3, after which the preliminary hearing was set for July 16 before Judge Jeffrey T Gilbert.
Although Mr Ponle appeared in court for his detention and preliminary hearing on Thursday, PREMIUM TIMES is yet to access the outcome of the proceedings as of the time of filing this report.
Grand Jury’s report
As obtained by this paper, a report of the special grand jury constituted in 2019, which was submitted to the court on Wednesday, indicted Mr Ponle.
In the American judicial system, the grand jury listens to the prosecutor and witnesses, and then votes in secret on whether they believe that enough evidence exists to charge the person with a crime.
When a person is indicted, he is given a formal notice that it is believed that he committed a crime. The indictment contains the basic information that informs the person of the charges against him.
The jury summed up the allegations against Mr Ponle to an eight-count charge of wire fraud, which violates section 1343 of the United States Codes.
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