Court upholds businessman’s 12-yr conviction over $1.4m fraud

Court upholds businessman’s 12-yr conviction over $1.4m fraudErinle, it was learned, was arraigned along with his company, Rinde-Remdex Nigeria Limited, before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, on March 11, 2022.

Erinle pleaded not guilty, but the trial could not be concluded before the retirement of Justice Taiwo, prompting the re-assignment of the case to Justice Oshodi.

Erinle was re-arraigned on October 28, 2022, before Justice Oshodi on a three-count charge of conspiracy, retention of proceeds of criminal conduct, and obtaining money under false pretenses to the tune of $1,410,000.

The charge read: “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, called four witnesses, through whom several documentary evidence was presented to prove the case against him and his company.

The prosecution also presented evidence to prove that Erinle had been convicted of fraud in the United States of America.
Justice Oshodi, on February 10, 2023, revoked the bail earlier granted to the defendant following an application by the EFCC, showing that he never perfected the bail conditions earlier granted by Justice Taiwo.