…INVEST N7.6M IN PONZI SCHEME THAT GOES UNDERGROUND
By Okosun Dennis
It was a show of shame at the Ondo State Magistrate Court on as a lawyer, identified as Barrister Anthony Oladele Thomas was docked for allegedly swindling a 90 years old man of N4,775,000 being money realised from the sale of property entrusted to the lawyer to supervise.
It was learned that after the property was sold and was authorised to share the proceeds of N16,000,000 among three siblings, he fraudulently invested a third part of the proceeds in a Ponzi Scheme that went underground.
Barrister Thomas, who was cladded in white native dress thundered in the court as he was docked before the Presiding Judge Oluwatoyin Olowokere to defend himself at Court 5, Ondo State Magistrate Court on December 1, 2022,
In a one-count charge slammed and read to him by the Clerk of the court, Barrister Thomas pleaded not guilty to the charge which read: “That you Anthony Oladele Thomas sometime in 2009 in Ondo town within the Ondo Magisterial district did steal the sum of Four Million, Seven Hundred and Seventy-Five naira (N4,775,000) being part of the proceeds of the sale of Feleonis property belonging to Olufemi Adesioye and family by fraudulently converting the money to your own personal use and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 390(8)(b) of the criminal code Cap, 37 Vol. 1 Lawsce of Info State of Nigeria 2006.”
However, People And Power Magazine investigation revealed that Oladele Thomas, a lawyer with so many clients, has refused to pay despite all pleas by the family. It was learned that he has resorted to every means to frustrate every attempt made, including his church in the past, to pay back Olufemi Adesioye, the balance of proceeds met for one of the siblings, Mr. Isaac Idowu Akintade, who is now deceased.
Testifying before the Court, the nonagenarian Adesioye gave the genealogy of how he and the mother entrusted property to the defendant to sell in 2009 as a supervisor. Explaining further, he told the court that he had engaged the lawyer to sell his grandfather’s estate located at Idishin, which was later sold for N16,000,000.
He added that Barr Oladele Thomas rightfully got N1,675,000 as his Commission leaving a balance of N15, 325,000 for the family. As a legal practitioner – a man in the temple of justice – supposedly imbued with so much trust, he was saddled with the responsibility to disburse the proceed to three of his client’s (Adesioye) siblings.
Unfortunately, Pa Adesioye told the court in low tones, he never knew Barr. Anthony Oladele Thomas is “deceptive” dressed in a false robe of a lawyer, whose clandestine motive was to confiscate part of the proceeds for his personal aggrandizement.
Sadly, instead, “the lawyer only disbursed money to two of his client’s sibling’s resident in Nigeria and kept one part (N4,775,000) met for Isaac Idowu Akintade, who was residing in London as at that time, but died about three years ago.
“Barrister Oladele Thomas has defaulted on an errand he was sent to carry out. Three weeks before Idowu died in London, he, (Idowu) wrote me and asked: Where is my part of the money?
Disturbed by the revelation, “I gave a copy of the letter to Barr. Oladele Thomas that Idowu hasn’t received his share of N4.775m. However, in the said letter, Idowu vowed and mandated me to do everything possible, as far as I am alive, to collect the money from Barr Thomas.
“I am appearing in the court to tell the whole world through the judiciary that he has not paid a Kobo to my uncle who is entitled to N4,775,000. On Barr Oladele Thomas claim that he invested in a wonder bank, I am just hearing that today in the court,” Pa Olufemi Adesioye reiterated.
“When I confronted Barrister Oladele Thomas for the money met for my nephew, he resorted to threatening me and my brother with death hence I filed a petition after exhausting every option to get the money from him failed,” Pa Adesioye further explained to our correspondent at the court premises.
In the petition made available to our Correspondent, Pa Olufemi Adesioye had on October 5, 2022 petitioned Barrister Oladele Thomas to the AIG Zone 17, Akure titled: “Report of Stealing By Conversion by One Anthony Oladele Thomas.”
Part of the petition read: “Having the inclination that nature is fast taking its tolls on me, I have deemed it imperative to lodge this complaint before you in a ‘Save My Soul’ manner, lest I be cheated till I return to mother earth,” Pa Olufemi Adesioye, who resides at No 1, Gbose Street, Agbala Maria, Ondo, stated in the opening paragraph of a three-page petition to the Assistant Inspector General of Police.
In a reaction to a telephone conversation with Barr Oladele Thomas, he denied that Pa Olufemi Adesioye didn’t entrust any property to him to sell just as he also failed to tell who gave the property in question to him when asked.
Besides, Barr Oladele Thomas claimed to have paid an undisclosed amount to the deceased account number domiciled in the First Bank of Nigeria.
However, when asked how much he has paid that left a balance of N1.6m, he declined to comment but added that Pa Adesioye has no claim to make but thundered if he can prove it in court, he could make an application for the First Bank to transfer the money.
“If he is entitled to the money, let him prove that it is his money. He has been to Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), and they told him the money doesn’t belong to him. He is desperate and has been going all over the places, Barr Thomas told our Correspondent.”
He also claimed to have had contacts with the children of the beneficiary but when asked why he hasn’t remitted the money rather than allowing Pa Adesioye to lay claims to it, he revealed: “I am not in contact with the children now. However, whatever settlement that would come, it cannot be done in isolation of the lawyer to the children’s father.”
However, he expressed disgust with the police, accusing them of the complexity in the case as he claimed to have been dragged to court without investigating the petition brought to the AIG Zone 17, Akure.
In a separate interview with Olufemi Adesioye after the court hearing, said he was ready to fight the Barr Oladele Thomas till death to recover what belongs to the family. “He is a fraudster. How do you invest someone’s money in a business without his consent? As a lawyer, is it lawful? He asked.
The Presiding Judge Oluwatoyin Olowokere who looked unhappy after Pa Olufemi Adesioye explained the circumstances that led to his petition, adjourned the case to January 17, 2023, for trail and granted him bail for the sum of N3m with two sureties.
https://any.peopleandpowermag.com/lawyer-docked-for-stealing-clients-n4-775m-from-sale-of-property/
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