[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

The other day I introduced you to Ephraim Chukwuemeka Ugwuonye, Esq. in a post discussing  Bruce Fein’s ethics.  In it I mentioned obliquely the controversy the man had with the Nigerian Embassy.  Specifically this is what they claimed he did.  He came into possession of a $1.6 million tax refund check on behalf the embassy, but then pocketed the money himself, alleging that they owed him all that and more for unpaid legal fees.

Well, let me offer some free legal advice.  If a country accuses you of embezzlement, don’t go back to that country.  At least if you don’t want to be arrested.  And yes, he did.  And yes, he was.  From the WAPO:

Nigeria’s antigraft body says it is questioning a lawyer accused of pocketing a $1.6 million U.S. tax refund due to Nigeria’s embassy in Washington, D.C.

A spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said Wednesday it is holding Ephraim Emeka Ugwuonye, a Nigerian lawyer entrusted with the sale of four embassy properties in D.C.

Femi Babafemi said he was arrested Saturday at Lagos’ international airport and that it had been a year since the body first sought his arrest.

He said Ugwuonye is facing several charges including the appropriation of $1.6 million which the IRS refunded to the Nigerian embassy after it sold properties worth a total of about $26 million between 2005 and 2007.

No comment from Ugwuonye, as of yet.  SaharaReporters, a site which has been sued by him in the past for alleged defamation, has more:

Mr. Babafemi said Mr. Ugwuonye was still being interrogated, adding that the detained attorney claimed that he was in Nigeria to attend a wedding ceremony. SaharaReporters could not determine if it was his own wedding.

Mr. Ugwuonye has had a troubled career in recent years, earning professional rebuke by regulatory authorities in the US.  In an ironic twist in 2010, he forfeited the companies used in the real estate transactions with the Nigerian Embassy to the state of Maryland for failure to pay property taxes on them.  An official in the office of the State Comptroller in Maryland described Mr. Ugwuonye at that time as a “deadbeat resident agent.”  A source told SaharaReporters that Mr. Ugwuonye is also currently facing a professional conduct inquiry by the Attorney Grievances Commission in that state.

Since SaharaReporters broke the news regarding the real estate transactions, Mr. Ugwuonye had sued us as well as other Nigerians who commented about the transactions for libel. He has also harassed several Nigerians by private e-mail threatening to sue them. He lost his libel case against Mobolaji Aluko, an engineering professor at Howard University as well as a blogger.

…

The EFCC said they plan to charge Mr. Ugwuonye to court for fraud in order to recover monies he illegally took from the Nigerian government.

That plan will be tested.  SaharaReporters has learned that since Mr. Ugwuonye’s arrest, several powerful Nigerians have been putting pressure on the EFCC to drop the charges.

“This is an easy one to predict,” an analyst said today. “In two weeks this story may not exist.”

(Emphasis added.)  We’ll see how that turns out.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]