Mike on Crime

By MIke McIntyre
Winnipeg Free Press

A Nigerian immigrant was sentenced to 30-months in prison today for his role in an elaborate e-mail scam that cost a retired Winnipeg doctor more than $35,000.

Toluwalade Alonge Owolabi, 37, will likely be deported immediately after serving his sentence, court was told.

Owolabi pleaded guilty earlier this month to conspiracy to commit fraud for his role in the international con, which was uncovered last fall following an undercover Winnipeg police operation.

A retired Winnipeg doctor was duped into thinking he was in line to inherit more than $1 million which he planned to donate to Third World countries in their ongoing battle against deadly malaria.

In fact, the 84-year-old man was the victim of a common hoax that rarely leads to arrest.

Crown attorney Steve Johnston said this is only the second case of its kind to ever be prosecuted in Canada, despite the fact thousands of people are believed to have been duped by this type of scam.

The victim – a world-renowned expert on malaria who has done extensive work with the World Health Organization – was contacted in early 2007 with an offer that must have appeared too good to be true.

The mysterious e-mailer said he would be in line for a massive inheritance if he wired more than $35,000 to a bank in Ghana, Africa. The senior complied – moving money from a Swiss bank account he owned – and was expecting a windfall in return.

Instead, the creators of the e-mail asked him for even more money, as by now they knew who he was and where he lived.

The victim agreed — but this time he called police.

Owolabi was then sent as an “agent” to fly to Winnipeg from Toronto to collect the latest payment of $7,800. He arrived at the victim’s Osborne Village condominium where he was greeted by a woman who claimed to be the man’s younger sister.

In fact, it was a Winnipeg police officer playing the role and collecting evidence.

Owolabi – who was using the bogus name of James Martins – was arrested on the spot and has remained in custody since.

This isn’t the first time Owolabi has been involved in a con job. He was convicted in August 2003 of wire fraud in New York and sentenced to 27 months in prison. Owolabi served his full sentence, then was deported back to Nigeria in 2005, court was told

He fled his homeland again in 2006 and illegally entered Canada by failing to disclose his criminal past. He had been living and working odd jobs in Toronto until his lawyer claims he was “recruited” to get involved in the scam.

Defence lawyer Kathy Bueti said her client’s background is the stuff of movies.

His father was a prominent politician in Nigeria but was murdered in the early 1990s. Owolabi also dabbled in politics and spent more than a year in jail being tortured for his views, she said.

He is now married to a Canadian woman and stepfather to four kids – despite still being married to a woman in Nigeria and the father of four other children, court was told.

A “contract” has been taken out on Owolabi’s head based on allegations he was involved in the theft of oil from the Nigerian government prior to fleeing to Canada, said Bueti. Owolabi is a mechanical engineer who hopes to plead with the Canadian government to allow him to stay in this country for humanitarian reasons, she said.

A sentence of more than two years means Owolabi will automatically be deported without so much as a hearing. Anything less would allow him to fight to remain, court was told.