Breaking! U.S. court dismisses fraud case against Woodberry

The case against Olalekan Ponle aka Woodberry, who was accused of multi-million dollar wire fraud, has been dismissed by a United States court.

The complaint against Mr Ponle, is that he tricked an unnamed company in Chicago into sending wire transfers totalling $15.2 million.

Prosecutors said that companies based in Kansas, Iowa, New York, Michigan and California were also victims of the fraud.

Subsequently, he was indicted on an eight-count charge of wire fraud by a grand jury.

The U.S government filed a motion through its attorney, John R. Lausch, on Monday, requesting that the case against him should be dismissed without prejudice. Mr Lausch said,

“Counsel for the government has spoken with counsel for the defendant and defendant’s counsel has no objection to this motion. Respectfully submitted”.

He said that it is in pursuant with Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure 48, which states that the government may, with leave of court, dismiss an indictment, information or complaint.

In addition, the government may not dismiss the prosecution during trial without the consent of the defendant.

A court order issued by Judge Robert W. Gettleman on Tuesday, said that the motion of the government to dismiss complaint without prejudice was granted.

When a case is dismissed with prejudice, it is over and done with, once and for all, and can’t be brought back to court.

However, when it is dismissed without prejudice, like in the case of Woodberry, the dismissal is temporary as the prosecutor can refile the case within a certain period of time.

We gathered that the probable causes of dismissal range from unavailability of sufficient evidence, an improper criminal complaint or charging document, to loss of evidence necessary to prove the defendant committed the crime.

As of now, the reason for the dismissal against Woodberry isn’t known but there are indications that the prosecutor will re-file a case against him as he is yet to be released from detention.