On Wednesday 372nd District Court Judge Scott Wisch sentenced Gbenga Fadipe to 12 years in prison after he pled guilty to first-degree felony Theft greater than $300,000.
The offense involved $693,625.77 in funds stolen from the City of Fort Worth.
“If criminals
are deciding who to target, and they know Tarrant County judges are giving
sentences like this, they may avoid this area in the future,” Tarrant County
Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson said.
Here’s how
the theft occurred.
In October
2017, a change of account request was submitted to the city of Fort Worth that
appeared to be from Imperial Construction, which was doing business with the
city. The fraudulent request, which was granted, was to update Imperial’s
wiring instructions so that Fort Worth’s invoice payments due to Imperial would
be directed to a new account at Chase Bank.
Fadipe, 50,
was the sole authorized user of the new Chase account. Once money was
transferred by the city into that account, Fadipe immediately moved those stolen
funds into four other accounts he controlled at Prosperity Bank and Capital One
Bank between November 2017 and early 2018.
Assistant DA
Believes Fadipe Had Help
Within two
weeks of liquidating all the funds that totalled $693,625.77, Fadipe flew from
the United States to London and then to Nigeria. He eventually returned to the
United States and was arrested in the Houston area. He was taken into custody
Wednesday night, May 12, to begin serving his sentence.
“We do not
believe this defendant acted alone,” said Nathan Martin, the assistant criminal
district attorney who prosecuted the case.
Yussuph
Hazeez in Harris County faces criminal charges relating to this case.
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