A Kenyan court has ordered the extradition of Kenyan businessman Abdulrahman Juma to the United States of America, to face money laundering charges.
On Friday, Milimani Chief Magistrate Wendy Micheni granted the orders allowing U.S. authorities to open charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and aggravated identity theft.
Ms Micheni maintained that there was no evidence to show that Mr Juma would not receive a fair trial in the U.S.
“The fugitive is said to be part of a syndicate that orchestrated a scheme with his co-conspirators who are already before the United States District Court for the Central District of California to defraud a victim who was seeking a lender to invest in a project to build a school,” documents from the office of Director of Public Prosecution said.
Juma was allegedly part of an international fraud scheme that plotted to cheat a tycoon seeking to invest in a multimillion project to construct a school in Qatar.
Court documents revealed that in December 2019, popular Nigerian internet fraudster Ramon Abbas popularly as Hushpuppi conspired with Mr Juma to defraud a Qatari company and its owner. Mr Juma had already been in contact with the victim when Mr Abbas was onboarded.
Abbas started speaking with the victim, posing as a Wells Fargo Bank employee named Malik. Both men then opened a bank account at Wells Fargo Bank in Canoga Park, California, using the name of the Qatari victim company.
The document notes that between December 19 and 24, 2019, Messrs Abbas and Juma conned the victim into paying $330,000 to fund an investor’s account to facilitate a $15 million loan.
Suspended police officer, Abba Kyari had been indicted in the Juma case by the government’s investigation, named among five of Mr Abbas’ co-conspirators in a $1.1million fraud charge.
Last week, Abbas and his lawyer Louis Shapiro successfully convinced U.S. federal judge Otis D. Wright to delay his sentencing after multiple appeals. The sentencing hearing is now scheduled for November 3.
Shapiro argued that Mr Abbas would have been unable to prepare for his sentencing hearing without all the documents relating to the Juma case.
In July 2021, Abbas pleaded guilty to multimillion-dollar fraud charges as part of a plea bargain he entered with the U.S. authorities.