Odera Odabi, Mail Fraud, Wire Fraud, Money Laundering, Georgia 2023

BREAKING: A Georgia man has been charged with scamming an elderly Suffolk County victim out of over $5 million in a brazen scheme that spanned nearly two years.

Odera Odabi, 54, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, was arrested yesterday in Georgia and made his initial appearance in federal court in Atlanta, where he was ordered detained pending trial. He will be arraigned in federal court in Central Islip at a later date.

According to court documents, Odabi and his co-conspirators falsely informed the elderly victim, identified as John Doe, that he needed to send around $5.3 million to various bank accounts in order to obtain a purported ‘Certificate of Origination’ from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and claim a purported inheritance in Singapore.

In reality, the IMF does not issue such certificates, and the public has been warned of fraudulent schemes involving purported IMF certificates. As a result of the false communications, John Doe sent Odabi and his co-conspirators approximately $5.3 million, including around $2 million to accounts held in the name of Oh-Dabi Properties, LLC and American Commodity Exchange, Inc., two Georgia-based companies that Odabi operated.

Odabi and his co-conspirators stole nearly all of John Doe’s funds, using them to purchase items at high-end stores like Apple and Louis Vuitton, except for $197,000 that was frozen by bank officials on suspicion of fraud.

If convicted of the charges, Odabi faces up to 40 years in prison.

If you or someone you know is a victim of elderly fraud, please call the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-372-8311. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York conducts presentations on ways to protect yourself and your community against scams, especially those targeting seniors. To request a presentation, email USANYE-SpeakersBureau@usdoj.gov.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Long Island Criminal Division, with Assistant United States Attorneys Bradley T. King and Madeline O’Connor in charge of the prosecution.

Odera Odabi, 54, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, is charged with conspiring to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. He is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Central Islip at a later date.

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