Justice: Cameroonian fugitive extradited for the first time to the United States
Photo of El Reno Federal Prison, Oklahoma.
(illustrative image) AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB / FILES
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
He is the first Cameroonian to be extradited to the United States.
Ebong Aloysius Tilong had been wanted by the American services for four years for fraud in the health system in Texas.
The FBI was offering $ 10,000 for his capture.
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Fraud, corruption, money laundering, false income declaration ... The list of charges is long for Ebong Aloysius Tilong.
This 57-year-old Cameroonian has been in the sights of American justice since 2015. He was sentenced in 2017 to 80 years in prison for a fraud of more than $ 13 million to the American health system.
This is one of the heaviest verdicts in history in this type of case in the United States.
HHS-OIG Fugitive Ebong Aloysius Tilong was captured.
In 2017, Tilong was sentenced to 80 years in prison for health care fraud totaling over $ 13 million, among other charges.
This sentence is one of the longest in health care fraud history.
Read more: https://t.co/ggbw9uZx8i.
pic.twitter.com/uIlYFuFppF
- OIG at HHS (@OIGatHHS) December 13, 2021
According to the US Department of Justice, along with his wife Marie Neba, Ebong Aloysius Tilong had submitted false claims for reimbursement to public health insurance for nearly ten years. To maintain this system, the couple notably attempted to corrupt several witnesses. Facts they admitted in court in 2016 before escaping from the house arrest where they were staying. Ebong Aloysius Tilong did not appear at his final hearing during which his verdict was to be communicated to him.
Arrested in Cameroon in 2019, Tilong therefore became the first Cameroonian extradited to the United States.
He arrived in Houston, Texas on Friday, December 10, escorted by the US Marshals service.
Still according to the American services, the police forces of the two countries collaborated closely in this affair.
But it still took two years for the act of extradition to be signed.
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Cameroon
United States
Justice
Corruption