Former Deeper Life Pastor & Nigeria UN Mission Lawyer, Eric Abakporo, Convicted On Fraud Charges, Faces Up To 30 Years In Prison

A jury in New York has convicted Nigeria-born lawyer and former Deeper Life Bible Church pastor, Ifeanyichukwu Eric Abakporo, on charges of fraud, and he could spend a maximum term of 30 years in prison when he is sentenced on November 12, 2013.

Abakporo was found guilty of conspiracy to commit
bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and
bank fraud. The first and third charges each carry a
maximum of 30 years in jail, while wire fraud carries
a maximum of 20 years.

Abakporo's co-conspirator, Latanya Pierce, who was
also found guilty on all three counts, faces the same
predicament. She will be sentenced separately on
December 9, 2013.

Last February, a grand jury of the United States
District Court Southern District of New York indicted
Abakporo and Pierce on the charges, and
recommended that they forfeit to the government a
wide variety of properties related to their offences,
as well as a sum of money representing the
approximate amount of proceeds obtained as a
result of the offences.

The jury trial of the suspects took place on July 26
before Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, and the guilty
verdict was rendered as early as 1:00pm. Ms. Pierce
is currently out on bail, but Abakporo was remanded in custody.

It would be recalled that the superseding indictment [Case 1:12-cr-00340-SAS filed on January 24, 2013] charged that between 2003 and 2012, Abakporo and Pierce, who owned or controlled several real estate-related businesses, worked together to defraud financial institutions and mortgage lenders, property owners, property buyers and others of real property, mortgage loan proceeds, and monies related to real property transactions.

As part of their fraudulent scheme, the indictment
said, Abakporo and Pierce used straw purchasers
and borrowers to buy properties using mortgage
loans from financial institutions and mortgage lenders, and caused false and fraudulent documents and information to be submitted to those financial institutions and mortgage lenders.

The properties involved were said to include:
1. 99 - 21 215th Street, Queens, New York
2. 50 Carnegie Avenue, Elmont, New York
3. 143 Quincy Street, Brooklyn, New York
4. 1308 Caton Avenue, Brooklyn, New York
5. 1070 Saint Nicholas Avenue, Manhattan, New York
6. 215 - 11, 111th Road, Cambria Heights, New York,
and
7. 101 - 24 197th Street, Hollis, New York 11423
In a previous indictment, the story was also told of
how Mr. Abakporo defrauded a 78-year old
American lady, swindling her out of her property.

"Through lies and deception, these individuals abused the trust of an elderly woman in order to
perpetrate a multimillion dollar fraud," New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said,
vowing they would face justice.

In May 2012, the federal prosecutor's office announced the arrest of Abakporo and Pierce for
swindling the elderly lady out of her apartment
building and stiffing a bank from whom they
fraudulently obtained a $1.8 million mortgage loan.
Previously, in 2010, Abakporo opportunistically sued
SaharaReporters for $30 million because SaharaReporters reported a petition written by
anonymous whistleblowers known as "The Patriots"
about fraudulent contracts for renovations at the
Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations
in New York.

The petition had alleged that a company called St.
Cyprian Properties was fronting for Ambassador Joy
Ogwu, Nigeria's Permanent Representative, and had
benefitted from the questionable renovation
projects. "The Patriots" insisted the renovation
contracts were inflated, and that the Permanent
Mission had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars
to St. Cyprian Properties for the work.

As the heat rose in May 2012 on the federal criminal
charges for fraud which he faced, Mr. Abakporo
abruptly dropped his $30 million libel suit against
SaharaReporters.

Abakporo's case calls to mind the recent judgement
on another fraudulent Nigeria-born lawyer, Emeka
Ugwuonye, who converted to personal use the sum
of $1.55 million he received from the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) on behalf of the Embassy of
Nigeria.

Giving judgement in that case on July 24, Judge
Barbara J. Rothstein of the United States District
Court for the District of Columbia ordered the rogue
lawyer to pay to the Embassy nearly $2.2 million.