Nigerian Rapper, Sauce Kid, Jailed for Card Fraud in US

Ololade Adeyanju

Nigerian rapper, Sauce Kid and Sinzu, whose real name is Babalola Falemi, was sentenced, this week, to two years imprisonment in the U.S. for credit card fraud and theft.

Sauce Kid was convicted for allegedly stealing $15,388 through credit card fraud, during a visit, last year, to Meridian, in the state of Idaho.

His conviction is coming after another popular Nigerian music artiste, Dammy Krane, was arrested in the U.S. over alleged credit card fraud.

According to court documents, Sauce Kid obtained stolen bank card numbers and identifying information for their owners. He then encoded the account numbers into blank plastic cards.

After using an automated system to change account PINs, he was able to withdraw cash from bank ATMS and buy merchandise from stores between July 23 and 26.

All of the withdrawals took place in Boise, Idaho, at ATMs owned by Idaho Central Credit Union and at Albertsons stores in Meridian, also in Idaho, court documents obtained by Idaho Statesman further alleged.

Police arrested Sauce Kid at the Boise Airport, as he was about to board a flight and found on him a card encoding device and over $6,000 in cash.

He was initially charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, eight counts each of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, and possession of 15 or more fraudulent bank cards.

He, however, pleaded guilty to one of the counts of aggravated identity theft and in exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dismissed the other counts.

Senior U.S. District Judge, Edward J. Lodge, who pronounced the verdict, also placed him on one year of supervised release after his prison term.

The cases involving Sauce Kid and, most recently, Dammy Krane has raised concerns about the growing ties between Nigerian music and Internet fraud.

A case in point is singer, Abolore Akande’s (9ice) latest track, “Living Things”, in which he sang praises of alleged Yahoo boys. Same goes for another artiste, Junior Boy, in his track, “Irapada 2.0” featuring 9ice, where certain names are called again.

But the real master of the new money music is an artiste known as Small Doctor, who constantly sings praises of Internet fraudsters, notoriously known as Yahoo Boys or the ‘Wire Wire’ gang.

This trend apparently informed the very recent advice of rapper, Folarin Falana, popularly known as Falz, to his fellow music artistes to quit selling crime to the Nigerian youth through their music.

Also writing, today, in ynaija, a Nigerian news and entertainment website, Ayomide Tayo noted: “Nigerian music and Internet fraud has put a spotlight on the relationship between both worlds. If you are naive, please know this now, Internet fraud and Nigerian music are closely tied.

“For over a decade now Yahoo boys have funded the careers of some countless artists. If this was 14th century Italy, yahoo boys are what the Medici family were to artists, grand patrons who pay for their works of art.

“Financially backed singers and rappers paid for expensive music videos and dropped the cash for promotion rounds. Many have floated music labels and some are singers themselves.

“A certain fresh-faced singer is said to be backed by an alleged yahoo boy.

“Just the same way the Colombian football league crashed when drug barons (Pablo Escobar and co) had legal troubles, the Nigerian music industry might just crash if Internet fraudsters pull out from our music business.”

The cover of Sauce Kid’s 2015 album “Industreet” shows him with his hands behind his back, clad in gold-plated bracelets, rings — and handcuffs. One of the songs on that album is titled, “Man Make the Money.”

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