United States court dismisses fraud case against Woodberry

A United States court has dismissed the case against Olalekan Ponle aka Woodberry, who was accused of multi-million dollar wire fraud, PremiumTimes is reporting.

According to the complaint against Mr Ponle, an unnamed Chicago company was tricked into sending wire transfers totalling $15.2 million. Companies based in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New York and California also were victims of the fraud, prosecutors say.

He was subsequently indicted on an eight-count charge of wire fraud by a grand jury. However, on Monday, the U.S government filed a motion through its attorney, John R. Lausch, requesting that the case against him should be dismissed without prejudice.

“Counsel for the government has spoken with counsel for the defendant and defendant’s counsel has no objection to this motion. Respectfully submitted,” Mr Lausch stated.

PT reports that he said that it is in pursuant with Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure 48, which states that the government may, with leave of court, dismiss an indictment, information, or complaint.

Also, the government may not dismiss the prosecution during the trial without the defendant’s consent. A court order issued by Judge Robert W. Gettleman on Tuesday said the government’s motion to dismiss the complaint without prejudice was granted.

When a case is dismissed with prejudice, it is over and done with, once and for all, and can’t be brought back to court.

However, when it is dismissed without prejudice, like in the case of Woodberry, the dismissal is temporary as the prosecutor can refile the case within a certain period of time.

According to PT, the probable causes of dismissal range from unavailability of sufficient evidence, an improper criminal complaint or charging document, to loss of evidence necessary to prove the defendant committed the crime.

As of now, the reason for the dismissal against Woodberry isn’t known but there are indications that the prosecutor will re-file a case against him as he is yet to be released from detention.

– PremiumTimes