Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505260101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Lisa K. Garcia
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Bamikole Laniyan and Sahid T. Ewumi, both of Nigeria, were sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday, with 16 years suspended, according to Roanoke Assistant Public Defender John Varney.
On Nov. 15, 1994, the men flew to Roanoke from New York and took a taxi to seven banks. They withdrew more than $13,000 using stolen and counterfeit credit cards. The scam took only a few hours.
They were convicted of nine charges, including credit card theft, credit card fraud and forgery.
The men will be on probation for 16 years after serving their sentences.
Varney said one condition of the men's probation will be that they each pay $309 back to the banks. All of the money stolen was recovered, except for $618, which was split between the men to repay.
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.