Abdulrauf Alade Owolabi has been sentenced to one year imprisonment, with an option of N250,000 by Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Special Offence court in Ikeja, Lagos. This was for being in possession of false documents and obtaining money by false pretence amounting to $5,000.
The convict faced a two-count charge by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal office, on Thursday, February 6, 2020. His arrest was linked to a case reported during an operation dubbed “Operation Rewired” co-conducted by the Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI.
One of the charges against him reads,
“ That you, Abdulrauf Alade Owolabi, sometime in 2018 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of the court, and with intent to defraud, represented yourself as Courtney Lopez and defrauded one John Howard, an American Citizen, an aggregate sum of $5,000 under the pretext that you are in love with him and made a promise of marriage, a representation you knew to be fraud and committed an offence contrary to Sections 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act No: 14 of 2006.”
He pleaded guilty to the charge when it was read to him.