Superior Court Justice Nancy Spies had ordered Cole extradited to face trial in the U.S. in June 2019. Cole, who is known by other names including Akintomide Ayoola Bolu and John King, argued on appeal that Spies was wrong in finding American authorities had established he was the person in question.The problem, the Appeal Court noted, was that Cole’s own lawyer conceded more than once during the extradition hearing before Spies that identity was not an issue.
Cole also questioned the evidence against him provided by the Americans, but the Appeal Court again found no errors with Spies’ judgment. It noted three people intimately involved in the operation of the alleged scam had pointed the finger at the accused. “There is no reason to describe the identification evidence given by the three witnesses in this case as manifestly unreliable,” the Appeal Court said. “They were describing a person whom they had met at a meeting for the purpose of joining and participating in the fraudulent scheme.”
The letter instructed targets to deposit the cheque in a personal bank account, immediately withdraw thousands of dollars in cash or money orders, and send the money to a “sweepstakes representative” in the U.S. to collect on their prize. By the time the cheque bounced, the alleged scam artists would have received the cash or money order and would then send the ill-gotten gains to Canada or Nigeria.