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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Fraud suspect ordered held in custody

Ex-student could face trial or deportation

Being a prime police suspect is only one of Adeniyi Adeboye's worries as the 24-year-old Nigerian citizen faces likely deportation from Canada after being arrested by Winnipeg police Feb. 6.Police claim that Adeboye, a recent University of Manitoba economics graduate, committed fraud by attempting to use stolen credit cards at a Staples office supply store. They are also investigating massive commercial fraud and identity-theft allegations.

Now, a deportation order against him is pending. The Canada Border Services Agency claims that Adeboye can't be trusted to appear for a removal hearing if released.

Adeboye appeared Friday before an Immigration Review Board official who ordered him detained for at least the next seven days.

He's been living in the country illegally since June, 2006 after extensions on a 2002 student visa ran out, the board was told.

However, Adeboye -- who was just recently granted bail in provincial Court on the fraud-related charges -- may be forced to stay in the country, and behind bars, a good while longer as Winnipeg commercial crime investigators probe into his activities while he's been in the country.

Det. Shaun Veldman testified at the hearing that more charges are pending against Adeboye after his St. Mary Avenue apartment was raided by police following his arrest.

Inside, Veldman said police found bank records, credit cards, forged identification and airline boarding passes under at least 20 different aliases that investigators believe he was using to defraud people.

Veldman told IRB member Marc Tessler, who appeared by videoconference from Vancouver, that Adeboye gave officers the name "Dante Williams" and offered a falsified Ontario driver's licence to police upon his arrest. His apartment was also rented under a different name, Tessler heard.

It wasn't until police threatened to cross-reference his fingerprints with an Immigration Canada database that Adeboye owned up to his real ID.

Police have yet to determine the dollar impact of Adeboye's suspected activities.

At the time he was granted bail the judge only heard the initial set of charges police laid against the man, Veldman said, but the Crown attorney was aware more charges were pending.

CBSA hearings officer Elisha Kapell said Adeboye ignored a letter from Immigration Canada ordering him to leave the country immediately.

He was also discovered to be in possession of a citizenship card belonging to a person with a different name and a birthdate of 1951.

Add to this the evidence Adeboye has been travelling under assumed names and it's unlikely he'll stay around to be deported, Kapell told Tessler.

Defence lawyer Hafeez Khan said it would be unjust to keep Adeboye in jail given that the young man is potentially facing years of custody before his criminal case might see a courtroom.

In ruling to keep him locked up, however, Tessler said it was clear from the evidence he heard that Adeboye "has his own agenda."

A possibility that the Crown could stay all charges against Adeboye remains. Doing so would open the door to have him immediately removed from Canada and thus avoid the cost of his incarceration and trial.

james.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 14, 2009 B3

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