Georgia man indicted on charges he defrauded Suffolk resident out of more than $5M
Breon Peace, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Credit: Brittainy Newman for HuffPost
A Georgia man has been indicted on charges of stealing more than $5 million from a Suffolk County resident and using the funds to buy Apple products and items from luxury retailer Louis Vuitton, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Odera Odabi, 54, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, along with other alleged co-conspirators not named in the indictment, told the victim through a series of text messages, emails and phone calls that he needed to send money to obtain a "certificate of origination" from the International Monetary Fund in order to claim an inheritance in Singapore.
There was no inheritance, federal prosecutors said, and the IMF does not issue such certificates.
Odabi was charged with conspiring to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, according to the indictment unsealed Tuesday. A federal judge in Atlanta ordered Odabi, at his initial appearance Tuesday, to remain in federal custody. Odabi will appear in federal court in Central Islip at a later date, prosecutors said.
An attorney for Odabi could not be reached for comment.
“Odabi and his co-conspirators callously abused the trust of an elderly victim to line their pockets with millions in stolen cash,” said Breon Peace, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which includes Long Island.
Between approximately April 2020 and December 2021, Odabi and his co-conspirators falsely informed the victim that he needed to send around $5.3 million — nearly all of the victim's funds — to various bank accounts, prosecutors said.
The victim sent the funds, including approximately $2 million to accounts held in the name of Oh-Dabi Properties, LLC and American Commodity Exchange, Inc., two Georgia-based companies that Odabi operated, prosecutors said.
Of the stolen cash, all that remains is $197,000 that was frozen by bank officials on suspicion of fraud, prosecutors said.
Odabi faces a maximum of 40 years in prison if convicted.
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
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