US Court Sentences Nigerian Big Boy, Woodberry To Eight Years In Prison, Deports Him To Nigeria

Nigerian big boy, Jacob Olalekan Ponle, popularly known as Woodberry, has been slammed with an eight-year and three-month jail sentence by a federal judge in the United States for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar fraud.

Court documents, according to reports say Woodberry was sentenced on July 11 by Judge Robert Gettleman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.

Gettleman said, “The defendant is hereby committed to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to be imprisoned for a total term of 100 months as to count.”

The judge asked him to present himself to the U.S. Marshal Service for transfer to the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, where he would be allowed visits from his family members and his American fiancée.

The judge also stated that Woodberry will be “surrendered to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody for deportation immediately following his incarceration”.

The court determined that the Nigerian-born fraudster had the financial ability to repay the full payment but waived all interest on the restitution value. He will now pay seven victims a total of nearly $8 million in restitution.

American prosecutors had on June 29, requested that Woodberry get a 14-year prison term for the fraud he perpetrated between January and September of 2019.

The prosecutors also asked the court for permission to sell the fraudster’s 152 bitcoins, but only after giving the public 30 days’ notice so that anyone with a claim might file one. When Woodberry was sentenced, it appeared that no one with a legitimate stake had come forward.

The prosecutors also suggested that Woodberry, who is well known for flaunting his lavish lifestyle on social media, will forfeit properties held by the Dubai police, such as a Rolls-Royce, a Lamborghini Urus, a Mercedes-Benz G-Class AMG G55, four Rolex watches, a Patek Philippe watch, and three Audemars Piguet watches.

In addition, he must surrender two bank cards, roughly $1,835 in Emirati dirhams, and around $15.45 in South African rands, along with five gold bracelets, two gold bracelet keys, six gold neck chains, one gold and diamond-studded necklace, and one small gold nugget.

Woodberry was taken into custody on June 10, 2020, along with Ramon “Hushpuppi” Abbas, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for computer fraud in the US late last year.

Kanyi Daily reported that on July 24, 2020, a US Court dismissed the multi-million dollar fraud case against Woodberry.

The U.S. government applied for a motion of dismissal without prejudice and it was granted by the presiding Judge, Robert W. Gettleman.

When a case is dismissed with prejudice, it is over and done with, once and for all, and cannot be brought back to court.

On the other hand, when it is dismissed without prejudice, as in the case of Woodberry, the dismissal is temporary as the prosecutor can refile such within a certain period of time.