Woodberry Sentenced To Eight Years In Prison For Fraud in The US

 Social media fraudstar Woodberry, known locally as Jacob Olalekan Ponle, has been sentenced to eight-year and three-month jail by a federal judge in the United States for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar fraud.

According to court documents obtained by Peoples Gazette, Ponle was sentenced on July 11 by Judge Robert Gettleman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.

Gettleman said, “The defendant is hereby committed to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to be imprisoned for a total term of 100 months as to count.”

Gettleman gave Ponle instructions to present himself to the U.S. Marshal Service for transfer to the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, where he would be allowed visits from his family members and his American fiancée.

The judge also stated that Ponle will be “surrendered to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody for deportation immediately following his incarceration”.

The court determined that the Nigerian-born fraudster had the financial ability to repay the full payment but waived all interest on the restitution value. He will now pay seven victims a total of nearly $8 million in restitution.

On June 29, American prosecutors requested that Ponle, a.k.a. Woodberry, get a 14-year prison term for the fraud he perpetrated between January and September of this year.

The prosecutors also asked the court for permission to sell the fraudster’s 152 bitcoins, but only after giving the public 30 days’ notice so that anyone with a claim might file one. When Woodberry was sentenced, it appeared that no one with a legitimate stake had come forward.