Dave Kolpack of Associated Press reports that a Nigerian convicted in a massive ID theft and fraud scheme is challenging the amount of restitution the court had ordered:
Attorneys for a Canadian man convicted in what investigators said was one of the largest credit card schemes in U.S. history tediously denied Wednesday that he owes nearly $750,000 in restitution by challenging dozens of his alleged victims one-by-one in court.
Adekunle Adetiloye, 40, a native of Nigeria who was living in Toronto, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to 18 years in prison last month following a years-long investigation. He was accused of stealing the identities of about 38,000 people and opening nearly 600 fraudulent bank accounts to bilk as much as $1.5 million from nearly two dozen banks and credit card companies.
The government is now trying to get some of the money back.
Federal prosecutors in North Dakota believe Adetiloye owes about $744,000, all but about $50,000 of it due to companies.
But public defender Richard Henderson said restitution should be set at about $110,000, and he spent more than an hour Wednesday naming off many of the 47 people and 22 companies on prosecutors’ list of alleged victims — challenging each claim individually.
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