Posted on: Tuesday, June 19, 2001

Nigerian gets prison sentence, $586,000 fine for bank fraud

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

A Nigerian man was sentenced in federal court yesterday to 37 months in prison and ordered to pay $586,000 in restitution for his role in defrauding several Hawai'i banks.

Honolulu attorney William Harrison, who represented Nkemululam Tony Job, said Job has already agreed to forfeit much of the money he was ordered to pay back yesterday, including $380,000 in a savings account, a 1999 Porsche automobile, $27,000 in cash and assorted jewelry.

When Job pleaded guilty in January to two counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy, he told federal Judge Susan Oki Mollway that he used fake identification cards to set up checking accounts at several Hawai'i banks and that he deposited checks supplied to him by accomplices in New York into the various Hawai'i accounts.

When he was arrested in February 2000, FBI agents said in an affidavit that they believed Job was a member of a Nigerian gang that has committed credit card, mail and bank fraud across the country.

After yesterday's sentencing, Harrison said Job kept about 20 percent of the money generated by the bank fraud scheme in Hawai'i and sent the remaining 80 percent back to those in New York who supplied him with checks.

Job, who has no prior criminal record, will face deportation hearings at a later date, a process he "is dreading," Harrison said.