A lawyer and pastor of the Deeper Life Church, Eric Abakporo and his accomplice, Latanya Pierce were on Monday arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigations(FBI) and charged with multiple bank and wire fraud, one among an array of other crimes they are been slammed with.
The duo were arrested for swindling a 78 year-old woman and organising a $1.8 million mortgage scam.
If convicted Abakporo and Latanya face up to 100 years behind bars.
The genesis of the whole issue began in March 2006 when Abakporo somehow convinced the Septuagenarian to appoint him as caretaker of an apartment she owned in Harlem,New-York.
Along the line Abakporo and his partner in crime persuaded the woman to sell the property for $3.1 million, giving her multiple dude cheques issued by a bogus buyer for payment.
After weaving a web of lies around their actions, the two swindlers brought their act to a local bank, claiming they owned the building “free and clear”. For this lie, they obtained a $1.8 million mortgage which they failed to repay.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman opined, “Through lies and deception, these individuals abused the trust of an elderly woman in order to perpetrate a multimillion dollar fraud. Now that their despicable scheme has been exposed, they will face justice.”
$1 million bond secured by an interest in property and co-signed by three people and secured by two properties has been granted to the accused in order to receive temporary reprieve.
Abakporo is no stranger to shady deals, in 2010 online news site SaharaReporters named him as one of the numerous beneficiaries of “dirty money” in renovation contracts at the Nigerian Mission in New York City.
The contracts, linked to Joy Ogwu, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, were inflated, according to a petition signed by whistleblowers calling themselves “The Patriots.” SaharaReporters reported on this a few months after New York Daily News was reporting on the fraud perpetrated against the elderly woman at that time charges had not been pressed.
The renegade wanting to save his face sued SaharaReporters for causing him emotional distress, asking for $30 million as damages . A U.S. District Court dismissed most of Mr. Abakporo’s claims in an April 2011 decision.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) describes the present crime committed by Abakporo and Lantanya as,“despicable” fraud: the theft of the life savings of an elderly African-American woman through deceit and lies.