Emeka Ugwuonye, US-Based Lawyer Found Guilty Of Defrauding Nigerian Government $1.55 Million

A US-based Nigerian lawyer, Emeka Ugwuonye, resident in the state of Maryland, was a big loser today at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia which entered a default judgment against his law firm, ECU Associates.

 The court covered it to refund the controversial $1.55m belonging to the Nigerian government.

The court entered the judgment after the firm failed to defend the case “despite multiple opportunities to do so”.

In a judgment Tuesday, Judge Barbara J. Rothstein, granted the Nigerian embassy’s prayers that Mr. Ugwuonye’s firm be made to refund N1.55m it stole from the Nigerian government.
 

The court also opened a window of opportunity for the embassy to provide sufficient information to it that would enable it to determine, against Mr. Ugwuonye’s firm, an appropriate damages amount for pre- and post-judgment interest on the money, punitive damages and costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.
 

Speaking after the judgment, the Nigerian ambassador to the United States, Prof Ade Adefuye, described the judgment as a vindication of his stand that Ugwuonye and his company had defrauded the Nigerian people.
 

“This guy has played all manner of tricks to scare us away from trying him for fraud.” “He wrote all kinds of lies to smear my character and that of the embassy. He fought us but we remained firm. Now his days of reckoning has come and this is a message to people like him that the war against corruption is on course and that we will fight corrupt elements no matter whose ox is gored. The money he took with recklessness and impunity belongs to the Nigerian people and I can’t be here and not recover it.”
 

Ugwuonye’s current legal troubles began in 2009 when New York-based SaharaReporters reported an alleged real estate transactions involving the Nigerian embassy, questioning why the properties were auctioned off at giveaway prices with the help of a lawyer with “professional baggage”