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Presidential Candidate Once Convicted And Jailed In The US

The presidential candidate of the African Political Systems (APS), Sir. Adedoyin Lawrence Famakinde whose running mate is Alhaji Ali Abacha was once sentenced to 30 months imprisonment in a US federal prison for fraud in 2001. He was arrested after using fake African Televisions stations to defraud unsuspecting members of the US public.

The presidential candidate of the African Political Systems (APS), Sir. Adedoyin Lawrence Famakinde whose running mate is Alhaji Ali Abacha was once sentenced to 30 months imprisonment in a US federal prison for fraud in 2001. He was arrested after using fake African Televisions stations to defraud unsuspecting members of the US public.

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 “Sir” Adedoyin Lawrence was later deported to Nigeria after his appeals failed in 2004 according to documents received by Saharareporters pertaining to the case.

After returning to Nigeria, Lawrence Famakinwa also went and set up an illegal TV station in the Bodija area of Ibadan, Oyo State with the purpose of defrauding members of the public but the station - United Tribes of African System Television Authority (UTASTAD) - was promptly closed down while the Nigerian police briefly arrested and detained Sir. Adedoyin.

The African Political Systems his political party is not listed on INEC’s poorly managed website though his name was released by INEC Chairman, Maurice Iwu, amongst those cleared by INEC to run for the office of presidency in the upcoming elections.

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See sentencing news below:

 

002-07-11 -- Adedoyin, Lawrence Famakinde -- Sentencing -- News Release

 

Nigerian National Sentenced to 30 Months for Telemarketing Bogus African Broadcast and Satellite Air time

 

NEWARK - A Nigerian national was sentenced today to 30 months in federal prison for fraud convictions in two separate trials, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced. The defendant was convicted at the first trial for having defrauded American businesses and individuals by posing as the operator of African television and satellite outlets and soliciting money from them. He was convicted at the second trial for immigration fraud.

 

Lawrence Famakinde Adedoyin, a/k/a "Sir Lawrence," a native of Nigeria, was convicted by a jury in Newark in October 2001 of three counts of mail fraud. Adedoyin was then convicted by a second jury of two counts of immigration fraud in December 2001, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bohdan Vitvitsky.

 

In sentencing Adedoyin today, U.S. District Judge William H. Walls also ordered him to pay $148,329 in restitution, and imposed a special assessment of $320 and a three-year term of supervised release.

 

Adedoyin was convicted of employing a scheme to obtain money as well as various goods and services without paying for them. Adedoyin represented himself to be president of an African television company that he claimed had branches throughout Africa and that he at various times named the African Television Network, the African Broadcasting Corporation and African Satellite Television, according to Vitvitsky, who tried the cases.

 

In February 1999, Adedoyin employed three unsuspecting persons to work as telemarketers in a Bergenfield office. Adedoyin had the telemarketers write and telephone businesses all over the country to offer reservations for $5,000 per seat at a supposed business awards event at Madison Square Garden. The event was wholly fictitious.

 

According to testimony and evidence at trial, the telemarketers were also directed to solicit businesses to purchase the production of infomercials about their companies that African Satellite Television claimed to be able to broadcast all over the world. Although Adedoyin had at one time signed contracts with satellite companies that could transmit programs internationally, those companies refused to provide him with any service after all of the checks he had sent to them bounced, according to evidence at trial.

 

Two of the three telemarketers who worked for Adedoyin in Bergenfield testified at trial that after two weeks of working for the defendant, they realized that he was operating a scam. They then contacted law enforcement.

 

Evidence at trial also revealed that the victims of his scheme included landlords, vendors and his own employees. Adedoyin leased office space at the World Trade Center in New York from April of 1997 until he was evicted in August of 1998 for nonpayment of rent. When he was applying for office space at the World Trade Center, the defendant supplied a financial document claiming his company had $5.5 million in available cash.

 

Adedoyin rented the Bergenfield office for five months. During that time he paid the landlord with two checks that bounced and was finally locked out for non-payment of rent. Adedoyin also rented space at a satellite dish station in Vernon owned by ATS Micronet, from which he was likewise evicted for owing about $40,000 in back rent, according to trial testimony.

 

The defendant called himself "Sir Lawrence" and signed legal documents under that name, variously telling people that he was related to Nigerian royalty or that he had been knighted by the British. A certification provided by St. James Palace in London and introduced into evidence at trial proved that "Sir" Lawrence had never been awarded knighthood. At trial, the defense lawyers suggested to the jury that the "Sir" was actually a stage name, something like Elvis Presley having been called "the King," or Queen Latifa being called "Queen," or Charles Barkeley sometimes being referred to as "Sir" Charles Barkeley.

 

Adedoyin repeatedly passed checks that bounced, some in amounts as large as $180,000. He succeeded in obtaining over $1 million worth of broadcasting equipment from Thompson Broadcasting Systems in Englewood by inducing a financing company to provide a purchase order for that equipment with a $97,000 check that bounced. Thompson subsequently retrieved most of its equipment, but the defendant has neither paid for nor returned about $100,000 worth of that equipment.

 

Adedoyin also did not pay any of his employees. A former employee at Adedoyin's World Trade Center office testified that the salary check he was given by Adedoyin bounced. On another occasion, Adedoyin gave his employees check stubs without the checks.

 

Adedoyin is currently in custody. During the sentencing hearing, Judge Walls said that he expected and hoped that the Defendant will be deported upon the completion of his sentence.

 

Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI, under the direction of Louie F. Allen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Newark office, and Special Agents of the INS Criminal Investigation section, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Anne D. Fahy.

 

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Vitvitsky of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark.

 

Defense Attorney: Paul Brickfield, Esq. River Edge

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