A Nigerian national extradited to the US made his initial appearance in a Miami federal court on Friday to face accusations for his role in an $8 million fraud scheme that obtained loans in connection with the phony purchases of approximately 20 residential properties in Florida.
Okechukwu Josiah Odunna, was arrested by Nigerian authorities last September and was extradited on March 6. He faces charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and has been incarcerated since his arrest, with pretrial detention and arraignment hearings scheduled for March 11.
According to the indictment, between December 2005 to approximately May 2008, Odunna and his co-conspirators devised a scheme to defraud and to obtain money by making false representations and material omissions to U.S. banking institutions. In this scheme, the collaborators submitted false and fraudulent loan applications and documents to financial institutions relating to purchases of residential properties, resulting in lenders loaning out more money than they otherwise would. These documents included false names of the persons who would be borrowing the money to purchase the properties, exaggerated sale prices that were much higher than the true prices and false details regarding the receipt and disbursement of funds in connection with the purchases of the properties.
Odunna, who was a licensed attorney at the time, was also one of the directors of Direct Title and Escrow Services Inc. (DTES) and served as the settlement agent in approximately 20 fraudulent closings of property purchases. To disguise the fraud, Odunna and his co-conspirators provided sellers and lenders with two different settlement statements, which included false information and omitted information regarding the sale price, the identity of the purchaser, and the receipt and the disbursement of funds.
Odunna’s co-conspirators, charged in the same indictment, included Karl Oreste, Marie Lucie Tondreau and Kelly Augustin. Oreste pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 100 months in prison. Tondreau, who was the former Mayor of North Miami, was convicted at trial and sentenced to 65 months in prison. Augustin remains a fugitive.
If convicted, Odunna faces up to 30 years in prison on the conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution charge and up to 30 years in prison on the wire fraud affecting a financial institution charge. Each count also carries the possibility of a fine and supervised release upon completion of any prison sentence.
