Nigerian court jails American businessman for theft, $1.2 million visa fraud

The Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja has sentenced Marco Ramirez, an American businessman, to 10 years imprisonment in dual cases of fraud and theft.

While one case concerns 16 counts of visa fraud involving as much as $1.2 million, the other involves 8 counts of theft of more than $360,000. Nigerians are the crime victims in both cases.

Delivering judgements on Tuesday, the trial judge, Mojisola Dada, found the American guilty of all the counts of fraud and theft preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in both cases.

The EFCC said in a statement on Wednesday that the court sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment regarding each of Counts 1 to 12, which centre on obtaining by false pretence in the fraud case.

The judge also sentenced him to 10 years in jail on each of Counts 13 to 16.

Mrs Dada also found Mr Ramirez guilty of all eight counts of $368,698.24 theft in the second case.

In this case, the judge sentenced him to eight years imprisonment on each of Counts 1 to 6 and 10 years in jail on each of Counts 7 to 8.

Since the sentences will run concurrently, the convict will spend 10 years in jail.

Cases

The commission alleged that at various times in 2013, Mr Ramirez obtained a total of $1,235,000 from his victims as processing fees for their investments in his company, USA Now Energy Capital Group LP, to qualify for US Employment-Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) Investor Programme visa.

The programme would have qualified the victims to be eligible for the issuance of US Green Cards.

EFCC prosecuted Mr Ramirez alongside his companies, USA NOW LLC, Eagle Ford Instalodge Group LP and USA Now Energy Capital Group LP.

He was initially arraigned on 12 counts and pleaded “not guilty”.

The EFCC later re-arraigned him on 24 June 2022 following an amendment to the charges, increasing the counts to 16.

During the trial, the prosecution, led by M. S. Owede, tendered several documentary pieces and called witnesses to substantiate the allegations against him.

The trial was said to have suffered a protracted delay, leading to several adjournments due to the absence of the defence counsel, Lawal Pedro, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). The defence was also said to have delayed filing their final written addresses in good time.

The parties to the case eventually adopted their final written addresses on 8 May.

The judge then adjourned till Tuesday for judgement.

In her judgements on Tuesday, Mrs Dada held that the prosecution proved its case against Mr Ramirez beyond reasonable doubt.

One of the counts read, “Marco Antonio Ramirez, USA NOW LLC, and USA Now Energy Capital Group LP, between 19 February 2013 and 18 April 2013 at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, dishonourably converted to your personal use the aggregate sum of $230,000 property of Abubakar Umar Sadiq,” one of the counts reads.

The prosecution also accused the defendant of converting to his personal the sum of $314,800 property of Abubakar Sadiq between 12 July 2012 and 7 November 2012.

The EFCC also accused him of converting Mr Sadiq’s $230,000 property to his personal use a year later.

EFCC also alleged that between 5 February and 18 April 2013, Mr Ramirez converted $545,000 of Godson Onyemaechi Echegile’s property to his personal use in Lagos.