How Neda Imasuen Fled the U.S. After FBI Linked Him to $25 Million Bank Fraud and Rose to Lead Nigeria’s Senate Ethics Committee

According to a report from Peoples Gazette, Neda Bernards Imasuen, the senator representing Edo South and chairman of the Nigerian Senate ethics committee, fled the United States after being linked to a $25 million bank fraud scheme by the FBI. Now occupying a key role in Nigeria’s legislative chamber, Mr Imasuen’s past raises fresh concerns about the calibre of individuals in high-ranking government positions.

The report reveals that before his political career in Nigeria, Mr Imasuen was a practicing attorney in New York, where he was eventually disbarred for life due to professional misconduct. He was found to have taken money from a client without providing legal services and failed to respond to multiple subpoenas from disciplinary panels of the New York State court system.

More seriously, documents cited by *Peoples Gazette* show that Mr Imasuen was identified by U.S. federal authorities as a central figure in a large-scale mortgage fraud operation that defrauded American financial institutions of over $25 million. The scheme, which ran between 2008 and 2009, involved using financially incentivised straw buyers to obtain fraudulent mortgage loans. A federal grand jury indictment unsealed in December 2012 named Mr Imasuen’s associate, Imran Ismile Badoolah, as a key perpetrator and identified Mr Imasuen as the lawyer who handled the fraudulent transactions.

The FBI stated that Mr Imasuen arranged the financial deals that underpinned the fraud, which targeted at least 33 banks, including Citibank, HSBC, Wells Fargo, ABN Amro, and Lehman Brothers. Although he was not charged, U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto described him as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the case. Mr Badoolah was sentenced in 2017 to 30 months in prison and ordered to repay the stolen funds.

The *Gazette* reports that Mr Imasuen returned to Nigeria around 2010, the same period he was unreachable for his disciplinary hearings in New York. He went on to reinvent himself as a legal consultant working on international development projects before successfully running for Senate under the Labour Party in 2023.

As head of the Senate ethics committee, Mr Imasuen recently presided over the controversial suspension of Kogi senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months after she accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual misconduct. Legal experts including Chidi Odinkalu, Abdul Mahmud, and Femi Falana have condemned the suspension as unconstitutional. Mr Imasuen dismissed the criticism, saying his actions were necessary to protect the Senate’s integrity.

Despite multiple promises to provide clarification, Mr Imasuen did not respond to Peoples Gazette’s request for comment before the report was published. His continued prominence in Nigerian politics, despite his disbarment and alleged role in a major financial crime, highlights ongoing concerns about accountability and vetting within the country’s leadership ranks.