U.S. court picks date for Abba Kyari’s fraud trial

04 Apr U.S. court picks date for Abba Kyari’s fraud trial

A United States court has rescheduled the trial of Abba Kyari, a suspended top Nigerian police officer, and five others, for alleged $1.1 million fraud coordinated by Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi.

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California rescheduled the trial from May to October 2022 based on a joint request by the prosecution and three of Mr Kyari’s co-defendants.

According to Premium Times, this comes amid uncertainties plaguing the extradition proceedings filed against Mr Kyari at the Federal High Court in Abuja, where he is also undergoing trial on cocaine-trafficking charges.

Ruling on March 29, 2022, the judge, Otis Wright, agreed that not granting the parties’ request could “deny defence counsel the reasonable time necessary for effective preparation, taking into account the exercise of due diligence.”

He also said it “would unreasonably deny defendant continuity of counsel” and could make “proceeding impossible or result in a miscarriage of justice” if the court rejected the postponement request.

The judge, therefore, postponed the trial from May 17, 2022, until October 11, 2022.

“Defendants shall appear in Courtroom 5D of the Federal Courthouse, 350 W. 1st Street, Los Angeles, California on October 11, 2022, at 9:00 a.m.,” the judge ordered in the ruling, a copy of which PREMIUM TIMES obtained on Friday.

Second postponement

The ruling made it the second postponement of the trial, which the court originally scheduled to start on October 12, 2021. But based on the parties’ request, the court had shifted the trial to May 17, 2022, and, in the latest ruling, to October 11, 2022.

The three co-defendants who joined the prosecution to call for the postponement are all U.S.-based.

The three co-defendants – Rukayat Fashola (aka Morayo), Bolatito Agbabiaka (aka Bolamide), and Yusuf Anifowoshe (aka AJ and Alvin Johnson) – have been released from custody on bail ahead of trial.

The rest of the defendants – Mr Kyari, Abdulrahman Juma, and Kelly Chibuzo Vincent – are outside the U.S. and “remain at large”, the U.S. prosecuting authorities have said.

The prosecution planned to conclude the trial within six days even with Mr Kyari and two of the defendants still at large.

In justifying the application for postponement of the trial in their joint application last year, the applicants said the U.S. government had already handed to the defence approximately 2.31 GB of data comprising 2,707 electronic files.

They added that prosecutors were processing approximately 6,773 pages of additional discovery expected to be produced for the trial.