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EFCC Protects Lagos “Big Boy”, Sunday Akinyemi, From Extradition to US

April 25, 2010

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been accused of acting vigorously to prevent the extradition of Mr. Sunday Akinyemi, a Nigerian fugitive, back to the US where he is wanted for tax fraud.  Mr. Akinyemi, a popular Lagos socialite and businessman, mingles with the politically well heeled in Lagos and is known to have political connections stretching from Lagos all the way to Abuja.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been accused of acting vigorously to prevent the extradition of Mr. Sunday Akinyemi, a Nigerian fugitive, back to the US where he is wanted for tax fraud.  Mr. Akinyemi, a popular Lagos socialite and businessman, mingles with the politically well heeled in Lagos and is known to have political connections stretching from Lagos all the way to Abuja.
SaharaReporters investigation reveals that he owns several businesses in Lagos, including Osborne Park Limited, Texas Dock West Africa Limited, and Gulf Coast Marine Limited. He was the co-owner of a successful ferry operation in Lagos known then as “Texas Connection Ferries”. 

Mr. Akinyemi is a wanted felon in the US, according to documents made available to the EFCC by US diplomatic staff in Lagos. Our sources said top EFCC officials continue to frustrate all efforts to extradite Mr. Akinyemi to the US.
 
Mr. Akinyemi, who is known by several aliases, was a long time permanent resident of Houston, Texas prior to fleeing to Nigeria in 2005.  On March 15, 2004, he was charged in Houston, Texas with multiple counts of tax fraud including the preparation of tax returns containing false statements.

According to FBI statements, Akinyemi was part of a massive conspiracy that bilked the US government of millions of dollars by assisting people to obtain unsubstantiated tax returns. Upon learning of his indictment, Akinyemi fled to Miami, Florida. Law enforcement authorities at the Miami International Airport apprehended him on November 10, 2004 as he attempted to board a flight to Nigeria. He was detained and later released to authorities in Houston, Texas on a bond of $50,000, the required ten percent of which was paid by his relative living in Bronx, New York.
 
Upon his return to Houston, Texas, Akinyemi was released pending trial, but on condition that he wore an electronic monitor on his ankle all the time. The electronic monitor was to allow the authorities to monitor his movement in case he attempted to flee the country. His passport was also confiscated. However, Akinyemi sprung a surprise on US authorities, according to our sources.
 
On December 7, 2004, the officer in charge of monitoring Akinyemi’s movement received a signal that the electronic monitoring devices on Akinyemi had been tampered with. The officer contacted Akinyemi’s home and was told that Akinyemi went out after arguing with his “wife.”  Akinyemi had successfully removed the electronic monitoring device and disappeared.  It was suspected that he was able to procure a Nigerian passport fraudulently and succeeded in leaving the US under a fictitious name.

When Akinyemi failed to report for a scheduled court hearing on December 9, 2004, Judge Johnson of the United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, issued a warrant for his re-arrest. In 2009, the US embassy in Nigeria sent a memo to the EFCC to disclose that the warrant for Akinyemi’s arrest is still outstanding.
 
The US memo to the EFCC, dated May 11, 2009, indicated that the tax fraud charge was not Akinyemi’s first brush with the law in the US. The memo, which originated from the legal attaché of the US Embassy, advised Mr. A.O.W. Ochogwu, at the office of the head of operations in the EFCC’s Lagos office, that Akinyemi was arrested in 1993 by the Drug Enforcement Agency in Houston, Texas, on charges of money laundering, conspiracy and possession of heroin. He was convicted on those charges on September 22, 1995 and sentenced to 108 months in prison after violating his pre-trial terms of release on August 10, 1993.
 
Once he returned to Nigeria in 2005, Akinyemi worked to embed himself with the political and business high rollers of Lagos. Akinyemi’s business deals remain shrouded in mystery. Records obtained from the US Bankruptcy Court in Houston, Texas, revealed that Akinyemi declared bankruptcy on December 2, 2002. “It is then questionable how Akinyemi was able to obtain money to open numerous businesses in Lagos, including his ferry and marine business in the choicest part of Lagos,” said a US diplomat.

One of our sources said that Akinyemi made a lot of money through his closeness to former Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos. “Chief Akinyemi was very close to Governor Tinubu, and was able to use his connections to establish his businesses.”
 
Another source described Mr. Akinyemi as “a smooth operator who has been able to infiltrate the EFCC,” adding that the anti-corruption agency “is protecting him from extradition to the US to face the law there.”
 
When Saharareporters contacted Femi Babafemi, the EFCC’s spokesman, regarding the US requests for Akinyemi’s extradition, he disclosed that the agency has had Mr. Akinyemi in custody since last month on a different charge related to fraud. Mr. Babafemi told Saharareporters that Mr. Akinyemi scammed a Lagos businesswoman, to whom he was married, of huge sums of money that were invested in his Texas Connection Ferry business. The agency said Mr. Akinyemi had been charged before a Lagos High Court presided by Justice Oke-Lawal.
 
Mr. Babafemi said the EFCC was aware that the US government was seeking Akinyemi’s extradition to the US to face unresolved criminal charges, but stated that the agency must wait until the Lagos case is resolved.

“We are highly skeptical of the EFCC’s assertion that Akinyemi is facing charges in a Nigerian court,” said a US diplomat.

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