Abidemi Rufai, a former aide of Ogun State State Governor, Dapo Abiodun has been released from prison in the United States, according to reports. 47-year-old Rufai was released from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ custody in Fort Dix, New Jersey, on November 15, 2024, reports said. Following his release, Rufai now faces deportation from the U.S. as stipulated in his guilty plea. When he pleaded guilty to allegations of tax fraud and aggravated identity theft in 2022, he waived his rights to challenge deportation after serving out his jail sentence.
Rufai was sentenced to 60 months in prison on two counts of fraud in 2022 after prosecutors presented a strong case of multimillion-dollar fraud backed with 100,000 pages of evidence before a federal judge in Tacoma, Washington. The terms were scheduled to run concurrently.
He was scheduled to be released on February 14, 2025 but a judge approved his motion to be released earlier based on new sentencing guidelines, and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons forwent the three months left of his sentence.
He was ordered to pay $607,000 in restitution to the U.S. government agencies across multiple states, and a Nigerian court ordered the seizure of his Lekki mansion in Lagos and bank accounts after the anti-graft office EFCC filed fraud charges against him.
Rufai, who was appointed by Governor Abiodun as Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties, August 2020. But he was suspended in May 2021 -following his arrest in the US.