According to The Seattle Times, Rufai, 45, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in US District Court in Tacoma to charges that he filed $350,763 in false claims for pandemic unemployment benefits in 2020 using stolen Social Security numbers and other personal data.
Rufai pleaded guilty to stealing benefits from other states, as well as another $250,000 from other federal programs, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Seattle.
Rufai has agreed to repay the stolen funds, though it wasn’t clear how he would make payments or whether his agreement meant he still had access to the stolen funds.
“He has agreed to disclose all of his assets and to cooperate in US government efforts to recover those assets,” U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Emily Langlie said in an email Wednesday. “At this point, we don’t know what kind of recovery will result.”
Rufai, who has been in custody since his May 2021 arrest at New York’s Kennedy International Airport as he was about to fly to Nigeria, was Abiodun’s aide.
The governor had suspended him and called for a thorough investigation into the matter.
A Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, ordered the interim confiscation of funds and properties linked to Rufai in August.
Justice Tijjani Ringim issued the ruling in response to an ex parte motion submitted and contested by Ebuka Okongwu, an attorney for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
It was previously reported that Rufai used the alias Sandy Tang and the stolen identities of more than 100 Washington residents to file fraudulent unemployment claims with the Employment Security Department last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the US Department of Justice, District of Washington.
According to the criminal complaint, between March and August 2020, Rufai mailed some of the proceeds of his fraud to his relatives’ addresses in Jamaica and New York, totaling more than $288,000 in deposits.
Rufai faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for wire fraud.
