Nigerian athlete Favour Ashe arrested in US, to face theft, fraud charges

Favour Ashe, the Nigerian sprinter, has been arrested for alleged credit card fraud and property theft in Auburn, Alabama, US.

According to a statement published by the Auburn Police, Ashe was arrested on February 6 after the department received a report from a victim that multiple items were stolen from a purse near the 100 block of West Magnolia Avenue in the city.

A credit card was among the items stolen, and the victim discovered several fraudulent charges were made using the stolen card.

The department said Ashe turned himself in after he “was developed as a suspect” and “further investigation arrest warrants were obtained”.

Auburn Police added that the 21-year-old athlete was charged with “four counts of fraudulent use of a debit/credit card and two counts of theft of property third degree”.

Ashe was transported to the Lee County Jail and held on a $9,000 bond.

However, the department added that the suspect remains innocent until proven guilty by the court of law.

Ashe was among the quartet that won a bronze medal for Nigeria in the men’s 4×400 meters at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. He was a national 100-meter champion in 2022.

The sprinter moved to the University of Tennessee in 2022 before transferring to Auburn University, Alabama, at the end of the season.

He becomes the latest Nigerian abecameto be merch in fraud scandals in thinvolved

In 2022, two Nigerian athletes, Emmanuel Ineh and Toluwani Adebakin, were convicted by the US attorney’s office of the southern district of Mississippi for their part in a “complex fraud scheme”.

The two pleaded guilty to charges of “sending thousands of illicitly obtained proceeds to fraudsters in Nigeria as part of a larger mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy.”

The scheme is said to have involved students of “multiple higher learning institutions in the United States”