ISSUE 11, Vol. 43 Dec. 06, 2002

Student explains how he was duped
By Tully Corcoran

Silence was all Johnny Senabulya heard through the phone receiver.

The faceless African voice that, for weeks, had been guiding the unknowing Senabulya.
 

Senabulya

 through an elaborate forgery scam, was speechless when, in the midst of his Sept. 20 arrest, Senabulya told the scam artist by phone that the $151,000 check would not go through.

After the police sat Senabulya down for questioning at the bank, he told the leader of the scam that the check was bad. 

“He didn’t say anything,”  Senabulya said.

That silence ended over two weeks of correspondence between Senabulya and the forgers that started with a simple email. 

When Uganda native Senabulya first received what sounded to him like a cry for help from some oppressed, seemingly genuine African citizens, he wanted to help.

“They sounded really desperate.  They needed help.  The government was pressing them down,” Senabulya said. 

The e-mail

According to Senabulya, the original email explained the dire straits of some Nigerian government employees who wanted to invest some money in the United States, but were not allowed to do so by the Nigerian government. 

So they needed someone in America to open an American bank account for them, only not in their names. 

However, in order to transfer the intended $30 million, they were required to have insurance coverage on the money.  Their email explained that they were $151,000 short of purchasing the required insurance policy, but had a client in Raleigh, N.C. named B.C. Allen, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who had agreed to send Senabulya a check for $151,000. 

Senabulya was instructed to deposit the check and then wire the money to an insurance company in Nigeria. 

Once the money was transferred, Senabulya was to receive around 30 percent of the $30 million transfer, but was to keep silent, lest the Nigerian authorities find out.

“The guys kept telling me not to tell anyone.  They’d kill us,” Senabulya said.

But their feigned desperation and sincerity coupled with promise of an approximately $10 million payoff was too much for Senabulya to resist, and he took the bait.

“They reassured me that everything was all right and they weren’t doing anything wrong,” he said.

Unfortunately for Senabulya, what they attempted to do is very illegal.

A bad check

When Senabulya tried to cash the check at the Hutchinson Bank of America, senior teller Angela Roth became suspicious.

Roth located Allen, who had enough money in his account to complete the transaction, but obviously didn’t authorize it.

“They told me it was a bad check, called the cops and arrested me,” Senabulya said.

In the aftermath of a couple week’s worth of planning blown up in little more than an hour, Senabulya began to put the pieces together. 

“When I went to jail, I realized what I’d done.  I was stupid,” he said.

As stupid and lonely as it might feel for an African student heading to the slammer in America after getting duped by his fellow Africans, he was not without the support of the church which helped him get the states in the first place. 

Mario Gutierrez, senior associate pastor at Abundant Life, his host family, and several members of the church braved controversy to accompany Senabulya to court on Sept. 24. 

“Several people said, ‘There is Abundant Life Church in the paper again, always helping those who do wrong,” Gutierrez said.  “As a Christian, when you tell a person you will stand by him, you need to stand by him.  I knew he hadn’t done it intentionally.  When you’re living in a foreign country, trying to make your dreams come true and someone offers you a carrot, you’re going to take it.

“Why did I stand by Johnny’s side?  Nobody else was,” Gutierrez said.

The unconditional support did not go unappreciated.

“It did a lot to stand with me.  I just can’t explain it,” Senabulya said.

Since the check was never actually cashed, no crime was ever committed. Senabulya was released from the Reno county jail after one night and was never criminally charged, though he has taken some ribbing from schoolmates.

“’What are you doing, man?’ some asked, ‘you want to loan us some money?’” Senabulya said. 

Now, according to Gutierrez, he is, at times, overly fearful of email scams.

“I think now he’s learned his lesson,” Gutierrez said.  “He’s on the other side of being too protective.”
 

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