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VOL. 32 NO. 32
AUGUST 5 - 11, 2021
Improving highway safety July crash sparks call for further use of cameras on Southern State By ROBERT TRAVERSO rtraverso@liherald.com
Robert Traverso/Herald
WITH THE SOUTHERN State Parkway as a backdrop, State Sen. John Brooks, left, Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages and Sen. Todd Kaminsky called for changes to a 2001 state policy that governs the use of cameras along the parkway.
Following the death of Richard Riggs, 75, in a July 12 crash on the Southern State Parkway, local and state lawmakers called for the revision of a state Department of Transportation policy that governs the use of cameras along the parkway at a July 27 news conference in Valley Stream State Park. As cars drove past on the
parkway behind them, State Senators Todd Kaminsky and John Brooks and Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages announced that they had written a letter to the commissioner of the State Department of Transportation, Marie Therese Dominguez, calling for changes to a policy implemented in 2001 that they argued could have led to the apprehension of the reckless drivers who caused Riggs’s CONTINUED ON PAGE 11
V.S. man charged in global money-laundering scheme By MATTHEW CUDAHY mcudadhy@liherald.com
A Valley Stream man has been arrested by the FBI for his alleged involvement in an international money-laundering scheme, officials said. On July 26, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed documents showing that three U.S.based defendants had been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to engage in money laundering and aggravated identity theft. One of them was Rukayat Motunraya Fashola, also known as Morayo, a 28-year-old Valley Stream resident. Three defendants believed to be in Africa were also charged. The grand jury indictment alleges that Fashola took part in
an elaborate scheme to steal more than $1.1 million from a businessperson attempting to finance the construction of a school for children in Qatar, according to a DOJ news release. The alleged ringleader of the scheme was Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, a 37-year-old Nigerian national who goes by the alias Ray Hushpuppi, DOJ officials said. “Mr. Abbas, among the most high-profile money launderers in the world, has admitted to his significant role in perpetrating global [business email comprise] fraud, a scheme currently plaguing Americans,” said Kristi K. Johnson, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. According to the indictment,
Abbas allegedly conspired with Abdulrahman Imraan Juma, 28, of Kenya, and Kelly Chibuzo Vincent, 40, of Nigeria, to defraud the Qatari businessperson by claiming to be consultants and bankers who could facilitate a loan to finance construction of the school. Yusuf Adekinka Anifowoshe, 26, of Brooklyn, also allegedly assisted in the fraud, posing as a Wells Fargo Banker. Then Fashola and Bolatito Tawakalitu Agbabiaka, 34, of Linden, N.J., were tasked with laundering the $1.1 million, according to officials. Roughly $230,000 of the stolen funds was allegedly used to purchase a Richard Mille RM11-03 watch, which was delivered to Abbas in Dubai and subsequently
appeared in Hushpuppi’s social media posts. Other illicit proceeds from the scheme were allegedly converted into cashier’s checks, including $50,000 in checks that were used by Abbas and a co-conspirator to fraudulently acquire a St. Christopher and Nevis citizenship, as well as a passport for Abbas obtained by creating a false marriage certificate and then bribing a government official in St. Kitts, officials said.
Anifowoshe, Fashola and Agbabiaka were arrested in New York and New Jersey on July 22, and they are expected to be arraigned in Los Angeles in August. All three are currently free on bond. Both conspiracy counts alleged in the indictment carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year prison term.