Sunday, 22 February 2009
Ayalew's surprise, Gebremariam's comeback highlight Ethiopia’s World Cross Country trials
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - African 10,000m bronze medallist Wude Ayalew’s shock defeat of cross country specialists Gelete Burka and Meselech Melkamu in the senior women’s 8km was the highlight of the 26th Jan Meda International Cross Country- Ethiopia’s trials for the World Cross Country Championships- held at the Jan Meda race course in Addis Ababa this morning (22).
Gebregziabher Gebremariam produced a trademark sprint finish to take victory in the men’s 12km race. Ayele Abshiro and Sule Utura were comfortable winners of the men’s and women’s junior races respectively.
Ayalew stuns Melkamu for 8km victory
After a series of domestic cross country races throughout Ethiopia, the meeting at the Jan Meda brought together the finest Ethiopian hopes in this cross country season. With Ethiopia’s golden trio Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba, and Sileshi Sihine all missing the race due to injury, it gave the chance to the country’s upcoming and established runners to push for places in Ethiopia’s World Cross Country Championships squad.
Perhaps the biggest winner of the day was the 20-year old Ayalew who has looked impressive on the road in the 2008/09 season with victories in the Great Ethiopian Run (10km) and Sao Silvestre 15km road race in Brazil.
In her debut cross country race in 2009, Ayalew proved that she can not only compete against the so-called cross country specialists, but also beat them.
After a frenetic start to the race, a group of ten runners initially led by Burka started to push on the pace after the first lap (2km). But with the warm and windy conditions affecting the field, the runners were forced to slow down to a virtually walking pace that allowed lagging runners to catch up on the field.
Melkamu, Burka, Ayalew, and Koreni Jelila all exchanged leads at the head of the pack before Burka at the start of the final lap and looked comfortable for her second ever 8km victory at the Jan Meda race course.
With 200m of the race left, Melkamu was the first run to inject a serious pace at the head of the pack. But Ayalew covered that superbly and launched her own kick to take victory in front of an appreciative crowd.
Melkamu beat Burka for second place with Jelila, Sentayehu Ejigu (winner of the Boston indoor 5000m two weeks ago), and Mamitu Deska occupying the top six places.
The biggest disappointment of the race was defending world cross country silver medallist Mestawet Tufa, who aggravated a leg injury and dropped out of the content with laps of the race left.
“It was a very tough race and I am happy with the victory,” says Ayalew. “I am hoping for a medal in Amman. Although I have not run much recently, cross country is quite important for me. I want to win something this year and hopefully make the Ethiopian 10,000m team for the world championships in Berlin.”
Gebremariam outsprints young field in men’s 12km
In contrast, the men’s 12km had a great element of predictability with African 10,000m champion Gebregziabher Gebremariam taking a sprint victory over upcoming runner Feyissa Lelisa.
A thoroughbred of the course since he made his debut running for his Tigray regional team in 2001, Gebremariam has now won the senior men’s 12km race a whooping three times.
Gebremariam’s Yuriy Borzakovsky-esque-come-from-the-back is often a risk he happily takes. And in a course like Jan Meda where heavy winds prevent any emotional front running, such tactics do not have such pronounced effects always giving him the edge.
The only runner who tried to apply pressure to the field at various intervals was All-African Games 10,000m silver medallist Tadesse Tola, but with the likes of World indoor 3000m champion Tariku Bekele and Abebe Dinkessa following suit, his moves were always covered.
At the bell, Tola led the quartet in a scramble for positions at the head of the pack. Young runners Hunegnaw Mesfin and Habtamu Fekadu also tried their hand at the lead, but Gebremariam, who at this point was the back of the pack, made his move with 150m left. At the end, his burst of acceleration had taken a full 20m ahead of the chasing pack before he started celebrations way ahead of the finishing tape.
Lelisa, who has been the top domestic performer in the Ethiopian cross country circuit this season, beat Tola for second place, while Tariku Bekele, Mesfin, and Fekadu made up the other qualifying positions for Amman.
Utura beats Genzebe Dibaba in the battle of the future
Much like their older compatriots Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar, youngsters Sule Utura and Genzebe Dibaba who are widely hailed as the future of Ethiopia’s women distance running are developing into fierce rivals each time they come up against each other.
After Genzebe, youngster sister to Tirunesh Dibaba, defeated Utura in last year’s race, Utura gained revenge at the World junior championships last year when taking the 5000m title.
The outcome of the latest instalment of the Dibaba v Utura went the way of Utura who powered ahead of her archrival with 200m of the race left for victory. It was Utura’s second junior race title in three years, the last race she will compete as a junior before moving up the ranks in 2010.
Unlike Dibaba, Utura has never won a medal at the World cross and victory in Amman looks more likely following her impressive performance here.
In the men’s junior race, world junior cross country silver medallist Ayele Abshiro lived up to his pre-race billing taking a comfortable victory ahead of Yetwale Kinde and Dejen Gebremeskel.
Elshadai Negash for the IAAF
Leading Results -
Women’s Junior 6km
1. Sule Utura (Defence)
2. Genzebe Dibaba (Muger Cement)
3. Emebet Anteneh (Amhara region)
4. Meseret Mengistu (Oromiya Police)
5. Tsega Gelaw (Defence)
6. Frehiwot Goshu (Prisons Police)
Men’s Junior 8km
1. Ayele Abshiro (Unattached )
2. Yetwale Kinde (Unattached)
3. Dejen Gebremeskel (Ethiopian Banks)
4. Atalay Yersaw (Defence)
5. Debebe Woldesenbet (Omedla)
6. Legesse Lemiso (Defence)
Women’s Senior 8km
1. Wude Ayalew (EEPCO)
2. Meselech Melkamu (EEPCO)
3. Gelete Burka (Unattached)
4. Koreni Jelila (Defence)
5. Sentayehu Ejigu (Ethiopian Banks)
6. Mamitu Deska (Oromiya Police)
Men’s Senior 12km
1. Gebregziabher Gebremariam (Ethiopian Banks)
2. Feyissa Lelisa (Defence)
3. Tadesse Tola (Prisons Police)
4. Tariku Bekele (Muger Cement)
5. Hunegnaw Mesfin (Ethiopian Banks)
6. Habtamu Fekadu (Defence)
Sunday, February 22, 2009
UK lawyer: Guantanamo inmate release due Monday
UK lawyer: Guantanamo inmate release due Monday
LONDON (AP) — A human rights lawyer says former British resident Binyam Mohamed is due to be released from Guantanamo Bay on Monday.
The Ethiopian national has been held at the U.S. military prison since September 2004. Terrorism charges against him were dropped last year.
Britain's Foreign Office released a statement Friday saying Mohamed would be returned to the U.K. "as soon as the practical arrangements can be made" but has repeatedly declined to say when exactly they expect him.
Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith could not say on Sunday how or when his client would arrive in the U.K.
Mohamed's military lawyer Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley says she has no confirmation of when Mohamed is due to return.
LONDON (AP) — A human rights lawyer says former British resident Binyam Mohamed is due to be released from Guantanamo Bay on Monday.
The Ethiopian national has been held at the U.S. military prison since September 2004. Terrorism charges against him were dropped last year.
Britain's Foreign Office released a statement Friday saying Mohamed would be returned to the U.K. "as soon as the practical arrangements can be made" but has repeatedly declined to say when exactly they expect him.
Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith could not say on Sunday how or when his client would arrive in the U.K.
Mohamed's military lawyer Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley says she has no confirmation of when Mohamed is due to return.
Ethiopian Rebels Clash With Government Forces; at Least 45 Dead
Ethiopian Rebels Clash With Government Forces; at Least 45 Dead
By Jason McLure
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- At least 45 people died in clashes between Ethiopia’s army and the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front in the east of the country, government and rebel spokesmen said.
The ONLF said its ethnic Somali fighters killed 140 Ethiopian soldiers and allied militia members in battles over the past five days near the towns of Fik and Degehebur, according to an e-mailed statement from the group. In addition, 29 ONLF members died in the fighting, it said.
“The area around Degehebur is now completely in the hands of the ONLF, as is the area around the city of Fik,” it said.
Ethnic Somali rebels from the ONLF are seeking autonomy for Ethiopia’s Somali region, an arid tract of land twice the size of England, which is also known as the Ogaden. In June, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the Ethiopian government of burning villages, executing civilians and raping women in an effort to quell the ONLF’s insurgency. Ethiopia denied the allegations.
Ethiopia’s government disputed the ONLF’s version of the latest fighting.
“This is completely wrong,” Ermias Legesse, Ethiopia’s state minister for communications, said in a phone interview today from Addis Ababa, the capital. “The regional peoples fought with the ONLF and they killed more than 45 ONLF soldiers.”
Legesse said three or four innocent people died in the fighting. He said he couldn’t respond to an ONLF claim that Ethiopian attack helicopters have been active in the region.
Opposition
Ethiopia claimed the Ogaden region in the late 19th century through a series of agreements with Italy and the U.K., which colonized much of modern-day Somalia. Ethnic Somalis from the Ogaden clan have opposed Ethiopian rule, and fighting in the region surged after the ONLF killed 73 Chinese and Ethiopian workers at an oil exploration site in the region in April 2007.
Ethiopia accuses neighboring Eritrea of backing the ONLF and has in turn backed Somali militias from rival clans to fight the rebel group.
Ethiopia has banned journalists from traveling independently in the region and rejected a United Nations call for an independent assessment of human rights atrocities.
By Jason McLure
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- At least 45 people died in clashes between Ethiopia’s army and the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front in the east of the country, government and rebel spokesmen said.
The ONLF said its ethnic Somali fighters killed 140 Ethiopian soldiers and allied militia members in battles over the past five days near the towns of Fik and Degehebur, according to an e-mailed statement from the group. In addition, 29 ONLF members died in the fighting, it said.
“The area around Degehebur is now completely in the hands of the ONLF, as is the area around the city of Fik,” it said.
Ethnic Somali rebels from the ONLF are seeking autonomy for Ethiopia’s Somali region, an arid tract of land twice the size of England, which is also known as the Ogaden. In June, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the Ethiopian government of burning villages, executing civilians and raping women in an effort to quell the ONLF’s insurgency. Ethiopia denied the allegations.
Ethiopia’s government disputed the ONLF’s version of the latest fighting.
“This is completely wrong,” Ermias Legesse, Ethiopia’s state minister for communications, said in a phone interview today from Addis Ababa, the capital. “The regional peoples fought with the ONLF and they killed more than 45 ONLF soldiers.”
Legesse said three or four innocent people died in the fighting. He said he couldn’t respond to an ONLF claim that Ethiopian attack helicopters have been active in the region.
Opposition
Ethiopia claimed the Ogaden region in the late 19th century through a series of agreements with Italy and the U.K., which colonized much of modern-day Somalia. Ethnic Somalis from the Ogaden clan have opposed Ethiopian rule, and fighting in the region surged after the ONLF killed 73 Chinese and Ethiopian workers at an oil exploration site in the region in April 2007.
Ethiopia accuses neighboring Eritrea of backing the ONLF and has in turn backed Somali militias from rival clans to fight the rebel group.
Ethiopia has banned journalists from traveling independently in the region and rejected a United Nations call for an independent assessment of human rights atrocities.
The high price of drought and lack of family planning
The high price of drought and lack of family planning
By Helene Gayle
Special to The Times
FATUMA Abrahim's mother never has had much in the way of choices. She can't make it rain, force crops to sprout from the parched earth or bring down the high price of food. Consider that the cost of a sack of corn in the Ethiopian village where Fatuma lives has increased eightfold in just two years. As 8 million people now face starvation, mothers like Fatuma's are confronted with the worst kind of choice: which child gets the last piece of bread-like injera.
Last month, 11-year-old Fatuma came to a health clinic weighing half what she should. Whereas families in America spend about 10 percent of their household income on food, poor families in countries like Ethiopia spend approximately 75 percent on food alone. As crops failed and food prices rose, households like Fatuma's could not afford to buy enough food for the family. Malnutrition rates are rising among children and expectant mothers, fueling fears that child and maternal mortality will increase.
To alleviate the suffering, more immediate relief is needed in the short-run. But a greater focus must be placed on the underlying causes of poverty and a fix that endures. It's helpful sometimes to put aside what people have no control over, like the weather and commodity prices, and empower them with something in their reach — the size of a family, for example.
In a country where far too few women have access to family planning or a say in whether to space out their children, many mothers are facing their worst fear. They have dwindling resources and too many mouths to feed. As a result, 25 years after the mass starvation that prompted Live Aid, the stage is set for another hunger crisis in Ethiopia. Only now the population has nearly doubled to 80 million.
Much of that growth has come in the form of families such as Fatuma's. She's one of eight children. Or at least she was. Just after Fatuma's arrival at the CARE-supported clinic, one of her sisters died in their mother's arms. And despite the family's best efforts to ration, the sorghum they harvested is about to run out, portending more trouble ahead.
In Ethiopia, which has one of Africa's highest marriage rates, 19 percent of girls marry by the age of 15. Most are expected to give birth nine months later. At that age, girls are twice as likely to die during childbirth than a woman in her 20s. In Ethiopia, one in 24 women dies during pregnancy or childbirth. Unfortunately, it's still not acceptable to discuss family planning among adolescents or unmarried women.
There is good news, however. The use of modern contraception in 1,250 villages where CARE works has shot up from 5 percent in 1996 to 30 percent in 2005, well above the national rate of 14 percent. And one taboo has been broken. The mere mention of family planning once got some women beaten with a stick. Now couples are discussing options and the relationship between family size and quality of life. To build on this momentum, more champions must support the government's efforts to educate youth and help drive consensus to give family planning a chance, for everyone.
Educating families, providing access to contraceptives and challenging cultural norms will not provide immediate relief. These tools alone will not prevent history from repeating itself. But they will provide a critical element that is missing in Fatuma's life. They help provide choices. When people like Fatuma and her mother are empowered to make informed decisions, fewer lives will hang in the balance each time rain gauges go dry and food prices soar.
Helene Gayle, M.D., is the president and CEO of CARE. She previously was director of the Gates Foundation's HIV, TB and Reproductive Health program in Seattle.
By Helene Gayle
Special to The Times
FATUMA Abrahim's mother never has had much in the way of choices. She can't make it rain, force crops to sprout from the parched earth or bring down the high price of food. Consider that the cost of a sack of corn in the Ethiopian village where Fatuma lives has increased eightfold in just two years. As 8 million people now face starvation, mothers like Fatuma's are confronted with the worst kind of choice: which child gets the last piece of bread-like injera.
Last month, 11-year-old Fatuma came to a health clinic weighing half what she should. Whereas families in America spend about 10 percent of their household income on food, poor families in countries like Ethiopia spend approximately 75 percent on food alone. As crops failed and food prices rose, households like Fatuma's could not afford to buy enough food for the family. Malnutrition rates are rising among children and expectant mothers, fueling fears that child and maternal mortality will increase.
To alleviate the suffering, more immediate relief is needed in the short-run. But a greater focus must be placed on the underlying causes of poverty and a fix that endures. It's helpful sometimes to put aside what people have no control over, like the weather and commodity prices, and empower them with something in their reach — the size of a family, for example.
In a country where far too few women have access to family planning or a say in whether to space out their children, many mothers are facing their worst fear. They have dwindling resources and too many mouths to feed. As a result, 25 years after the mass starvation that prompted Live Aid, the stage is set for another hunger crisis in Ethiopia. Only now the population has nearly doubled to 80 million.
Much of that growth has come in the form of families such as Fatuma's. She's one of eight children. Or at least she was. Just after Fatuma's arrival at the CARE-supported clinic, one of her sisters died in their mother's arms. And despite the family's best efforts to ration, the sorghum they harvested is about to run out, portending more trouble ahead.
In Ethiopia, which has one of Africa's highest marriage rates, 19 percent of girls marry by the age of 15. Most are expected to give birth nine months later. At that age, girls are twice as likely to die during childbirth than a woman in her 20s. In Ethiopia, one in 24 women dies during pregnancy or childbirth. Unfortunately, it's still not acceptable to discuss family planning among adolescents or unmarried women.
There is good news, however. The use of modern contraception in 1,250 villages where CARE works has shot up from 5 percent in 1996 to 30 percent in 2005, well above the national rate of 14 percent. And one taboo has been broken. The mere mention of family planning once got some women beaten with a stick. Now couples are discussing options and the relationship between family size and quality of life. To build on this momentum, more champions must support the government's efforts to educate youth and help drive consensus to give family planning a chance, for everyone.
Educating families, providing access to contraceptives and challenging cultural norms will not provide immediate relief. These tools alone will not prevent history from repeating itself. But they will provide a critical element that is missing in Fatuma's life. They help provide choices. When people like Fatuma and her mother are empowered to make informed decisions, fewer lives will hang in the balance each time rain gauges go dry and food prices soar.
Helene Gayle, M.D., is the president and CEO of CARE. She previously was director of the Gates Foundation's HIV, TB and Reproductive Health program in Seattle.
Planting trees in Ethiopia
Planting trees in Ethiopia
The world is losing its natural forests. So much so that deforestation contributes more to global carbon emissions every year than the transport sector. Yet trees are a natural environmental power house. The oxygen they produce removes air pollution, lowers temperatures and adds moisture to the air. By holding soil in place and reducing run-off from streams, they prevent soil erosion, control avalanches and mitigate desertification.
With forests storing 283 gigatonnes of carbon in their biomass alone, curbing deforestation – and re-planting trees – is a highly effective way to reduce carbon emissions.
At the turn of the 20th century, 40 per cent of Ethiopia was covered by forest. Today that figure is just 3 per cent. As a consequence, deforestation is jeopardising livelihoods and taking its toll on children’s development, most especially in its remote and underdeveloped regions.
In 2007, as part of its millennium celebrations, the Government of Ethiopia pledged to plant more than 60 million trees across the country. UNICEF, a key partner in this highly ambitious initiative, is contributing to the planting of at least 20 million trees. The overall aim is to create a safer, healthier environment for Ethiopia’s future generations whilst taking action on the deforestation which is contributing to flash-flooding and the destruction of homes and crops.
UNICEF believes it is vital that children and young people are able to play a role in protecting their environment. To that end, Ethiopia’s Millennium Tree Planting Campaign has enlisted children and young people as major partners.
Two year-old seedlings – from five indigenous species – are being planted and nurtured by children and young people in school compounds and areas selected by local communities. The campaign is raising public awareness about broader environmental issues and with the children’s enthusiastic involvement is, quite literally, putting one aspect of environmental protection firmly in their hands.
Ethiopia’s Millennium Tree Planting Campaign is part of UNEP’s ‘Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign’. Individuals, children and youth groups, schools, community groups, NGOs, farmers, the private sector, local authorities and national governments are all encouraged to enter tree-planting pledges online. Each pledge can be anything from a single tree to several million trees.
Sources: UNICEF Country Programme, Ethiopia, “Climate Change and Children”, UNICEF 2007.
The world is losing its natural forests. So much so that deforestation contributes more to global carbon emissions every year than the transport sector. Yet trees are a natural environmental power house. The oxygen they produce removes air pollution, lowers temperatures and adds moisture to the air. By holding soil in place and reducing run-off from streams, they prevent soil erosion, control avalanches and mitigate desertification.
With forests storing 283 gigatonnes of carbon in their biomass alone, curbing deforestation – and re-planting trees – is a highly effective way to reduce carbon emissions.
At the turn of the 20th century, 40 per cent of Ethiopia was covered by forest. Today that figure is just 3 per cent. As a consequence, deforestation is jeopardising livelihoods and taking its toll on children’s development, most especially in its remote and underdeveloped regions.
In 2007, as part of its millennium celebrations, the Government of Ethiopia pledged to plant more than 60 million trees across the country. UNICEF, a key partner in this highly ambitious initiative, is contributing to the planting of at least 20 million trees. The overall aim is to create a safer, healthier environment for Ethiopia’s future generations whilst taking action on the deforestation which is contributing to flash-flooding and the destruction of homes and crops.
UNICEF believes it is vital that children and young people are able to play a role in protecting their environment. To that end, Ethiopia’s Millennium Tree Planting Campaign has enlisted children and young people as major partners.
Two year-old seedlings – from five indigenous species – are being planted and nurtured by children and young people in school compounds and areas selected by local communities. The campaign is raising public awareness about broader environmental issues and with the children’s enthusiastic involvement is, quite literally, putting one aspect of environmental protection firmly in their hands.
Ethiopia’s Millennium Tree Planting Campaign is part of UNEP’s ‘Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign’. Individuals, children and youth groups, schools, community groups, NGOs, farmers, the private sector, local authorities and national governments are all encouraged to enter tree-planting pledges online. Each pledge can be anything from a single tree to several million trees.
Sources: UNICEF Country Programme, Ethiopia, “Climate Change and Children”, UNICEF 2007.
Ethiopian pop star jail term cut
Ethiopian pop star jail term cut
By Elizabeth Blunt
BBC News, Addis Ababa
Ethiopia's most famous pop singer, Teddy Afro, has had his sentence for manslaughter reduced on appeal.
He was jailed for causing the death of a young homeless man through dangerous driving and failing to stop at the scene of the accident.
The sentence was reduced from six years to two years, which means that - allowing for time already served - he could be free very shortly.
The singer has always denied committing the crime.
As news of the decision rippled out across Addis Ababa, groups of young people gathered in the streets, cheering and hugging each other at the news that their favourite singer would soon be free.
Victim 'was drunk'
Teddy Afro, charged under his real name of Tewodros Kassahun, had originally received a six-year jail sentence, after a car identified as belonging to him hit and killed a young homeless man in the centre of Addis Ababa and then failed to stop to offer assistance.
The performer has always said that he was not driving at the time.
The appeal judge, Mr Justice Dagne Melaku, in a careful and detailed decision, upheld the guilty verdict but reduced the sentence from six years to two - on the grounds that the victim had been seen lying drunk and unconscious in the road before the accident - and that the police had failed to move him to safety.
The singer has already spent nearly a year in jail and with an allowance for good behaviour he should now be free in less than a year.
His die-hard fans, however, still refuse to accept he could be guilty, continuing to maintain that he is the victim of a political vendetta because Teddy Afro's music was identified with the opposition cause at the time of the controversial 2005 elections.
By Elizabeth Blunt
BBC News, Addis Ababa
Ethiopia's most famous pop singer, Teddy Afro, has had his sentence for manslaughter reduced on appeal.
He was jailed for causing the death of a young homeless man through dangerous driving and failing to stop at the scene of the accident.
The sentence was reduced from six years to two years, which means that - allowing for time already served - he could be free very shortly.
The singer has always denied committing the crime.
As news of the decision rippled out across Addis Ababa, groups of young people gathered in the streets, cheering and hugging each other at the news that their favourite singer would soon be free.
Victim 'was drunk'
Teddy Afro, charged under his real name of Tewodros Kassahun, had originally received a six-year jail sentence, after a car identified as belonging to him hit and killed a young homeless man in the centre of Addis Ababa and then failed to stop to offer assistance.
The performer has always said that he was not driving at the time.
The appeal judge, Mr Justice Dagne Melaku, in a careful and detailed decision, upheld the guilty verdict but reduced the sentence from six years to two - on the grounds that the victim had been seen lying drunk and unconscious in the road before the accident - and that the police had failed to move him to safety.
The singer has already spent nearly a year in jail and with an allowance for good behaviour he should now be free in less than a year.
His die-hard fans, however, still refuse to accept he could be guilty, continuing to maintain that he is the victim of a political vendetta because Teddy Afro's music was identified with the opposition cause at the time of the controversial 2005 elections.
Nigerian Accused in Scheme to Swindle Citibank from Ethiopia Account
February 21, 2009
Nigerian Accused in Scheme to Swindle Citibank
By BENJAMIN WEISER
Swindles in which someone overseas seeks access to a person’s bank account are so well known that most potential victims can spot them in seconds.
But one man found success by tweaking the formula, prosecutors say: Rather than trying to dupe an account holder into giving up information, he duped the bank. And instead of swindling a person, he tried to rob a country — of $27 million.
To carry out the elaborate scheme, prosecutors in New York said on Friday, the man, identified as Paul Gabriel Amos, 37, a Nigerian citizen who lived in Singapore, worked with others to create official-looking documents that instructed Citibank to wire the money in two dozen transactions to accounts that Mr. Amos and the others controlled around the world.
The money came from a Citibank account in New York held by the National Bank of Ethiopia, that country’s central bank. Prosecutors said the conspirators, contacted by Citibank to verify the transactions, posed as Ethiopian bank officials and approved the transfers.
Mr. Amos was arrested last month as he tried to enter the United States through Los Angeles, a prosecutor, Marcus A. Asner, said in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Mr. Amos, who was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, told a federal magistrate judge, “I’m not guilty, sir.” The judge, Andrew J. Peck, ordered him detained pending a further hearing. If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.
The fraud was uncovered after several banks where the conspirators held accounts returned money to Citibank, saying they had been unable to process the transactions, and an official of the National Bank of Ethiopia said that it did not recognize the transactions, according to a complaint signed by an F.B.I. agent, Bryan Trebelhorn.
A Citigroup spokeswoman said: “We have worked closely with law enforcement throughout the investigation and are pleased it has resulted in this arrest. Citi constantly reviews and upgrades its physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to detect, prevent and mitigate theft.”
A spokesman for the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington said, “We are aware of this unfortunate story.” He said the embassy was not involved in the legal proceedings, and declined further comment. Officials at the National Bank of Ethiopia could not be reached by phone for comment.
Prosecutors said the scheme began in September, when Citibank received a package with documents purportedly signed by officials of the Ethiopian bank instructing Citibank to accept instructions by fax. There was also a list of officials who could be called to confirm such requests. The signatures of the officials appeared to match those in Citibank’s records and were accepted by Citibank, the complaint says.
In October, Citibank received two dozen faxed requests for money to be wired, and it transferred $27 million to accounts controlled by the conspirators in Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, Cyprus and the United States, the complaint says.
Citibank called the officials whose names and numbers it had been given to verify the transactions, prosecutors said. The numbers turned out to be for cellphones in Nigeria, South Africa and Britain used by the conspirators.
Citibank, in its investigation, later determined the package of documents had come via courier from Lagos, Nigeria, rather than from the offices of the National Bank of Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa.
Citibank has credited back the lost funds to the National Bank of Ethiopia, said one person who was briefed about the situation.
Nigerian Accused in Scheme to Swindle Citibank
By BENJAMIN WEISER
Swindles in which someone overseas seeks access to a person’s bank account are so well known that most potential victims can spot them in seconds.
But one man found success by tweaking the formula, prosecutors say: Rather than trying to dupe an account holder into giving up information, he duped the bank. And instead of swindling a person, he tried to rob a country — of $27 million.
To carry out the elaborate scheme, prosecutors in New York said on Friday, the man, identified as Paul Gabriel Amos, 37, a Nigerian citizen who lived in Singapore, worked with others to create official-looking documents that instructed Citibank to wire the money in two dozen transactions to accounts that Mr. Amos and the others controlled around the world.
The money came from a Citibank account in New York held by the National Bank of Ethiopia, that country’s central bank. Prosecutors said the conspirators, contacted by Citibank to verify the transactions, posed as Ethiopian bank officials and approved the transfers.
Mr. Amos was arrested last month as he tried to enter the United States through Los Angeles, a prosecutor, Marcus A. Asner, said in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Mr. Amos, who was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, told a federal magistrate judge, “I’m not guilty, sir.” The judge, Andrew J. Peck, ordered him detained pending a further hearing. If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.
The fraud was uncovered after several banks where the conspirators held accounts returned money to Citibank, saying they had been unable to process the transactions, and an official of the National Bank of Ethiopia said that it did not recognize the transactions, according to a complaint signed by an F.B.I. agent, Bryan Trebelhorn.
A Citigroup spokeswoman said: “We have worked closely with law enforcement throughout the investigation and are pleased it has resulted in this arrest. Citi constantly reviews and upgrades its physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to detect, prevent and mitigate theft.”
A spokesman for the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington said, “We are aware of this unfortunate story.” He said the embassy was not involved in the legal proceedings, and declined further comment. Officials at the National Bank of Ethiopia could not be reached by phone for comment.
Prosecutors said the scheme began in September, when Citibank received a package with documents purportedly signed by officials of the Ethiopian bank instructing Citibank to accept instructions by fax. There was also a list of officials who could be called to confirm such requests. The signatures of the officials appeared to match those in Citibank’s records and were accepted by Citibank, the complaint says.
In October, Citibank received two dozen faxed requests for money to be wired, and it transferred $27 million to accounts controlled by the conspirators in Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, Cyprus and the United States, the complaint says.
Citibank called the officials whose names and numbers it had been given to verify the transactions, prosecutors said. The numbers turned out to be for cellphones in Nigeria, South Africa and Britain used by the conspirators.
Citibank, in its investigation, later determined the package of documents had come via courier from Lagos, Nigeria, rather than from the offices of the National Bank of Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa.
Citibank has credited back the lost funds to the National Bank of Ethiopia, said one person who was briefed about the situation.
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