Michael Nash, the Chicago lawyer
representing Olalekan Ponle in the United States court, has revealed the reason
for the dismissal of the complaints against his client.
Mr Ponle, nicknamed Woodberry, is
facing charges bordering on wire fraud conspiracy at a United States District
Court sitting in Illinois, after he was arrested at the United Arab Emirate on
June 10.
According to the complaint
against Mr Ponle, an unnamed Chicago company was tricked into sending wire
transfers totalling $15.2 million.
Companies based in Iowa, Kansas,
Michigan, New York and California were also listed as victims of the alleged
fraud, prosecutors say.
Recall that the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) nabbed the 29-year-old through details
accessed from his WhatsApp, iPhone and Bitcoin transactions. He was extradited
to the United States on July 2.
A report of the grand jury, a
group of lawyers empowered to conduct legal proceedings and investigate
potential criminal conduct, indicted him.
The jury summed up the
allegations against him to an eight-count charge of wire fraud, which violates
section 1343 of the United States Codes.
Temporary relief
In the court order issued by
Judge Robert W. Gettleman on Tuesday, the government’s motion to dismiss
complaint without prejudice was granted.
“Without objection the complaint
against defendant Ponle is dismissed without prejudice. Motion presentment
hearing set for 7/23/2020 is stricken,” Mr Gettleman ruled.
When a case is dismissed with prejudice,
it is over and done with, once and for all, and cannot be brought back to court
but when it is dismissed “without prejudice”, like in the case of Mr Ponle, the
dismissal is temporary and can be revisited.
Reason
While responding to enquiries made by PremiumTimes on Thursday night, Mr Nash said the case was dismissed
because the government charged him with a slightly different crime.
“The government dismissed the
case because it charged him with a slightly different crime. In the long run,
no difference.”
He, however, failed to provide
clarifications to what he meant by a ‘slightly different crime’.
When contacted on Thursday night,
Assistant U.S. Attorney, Joseph D. Fitzpatrick, who spoke on behalf of the
plaintiff, said although the complaint is dismissed, but the grand jury
indictment is still active.
“We dismissed the complaint, but
the indictment (charging 8 counts of wire fraud) is still active. We cannot
comment on the dismissal of the complaint, but I wanted to make sure you knew
the indictment is still active,” he told this newspaper.
He said Mr Ponle “has now been
charged by indictment, instead of being charged by the complaint by FBI”.
The accused remains in the
custody of the U.S. Marshal as of the time of reporting.
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