A man convicted of money laundering who fled during his trial in January and evaded authorities for more than a month was taken into custody Thursday after threatening to jump from an overpass above I-75, officials said.
The FBI said it was serving an arrest warrant when 30-year-old Ahamefule Aso Odus ran away and went to the Northside Drive overpass. The incident shut down all four southbound lanes of the interstate as the federal agency, its negotiators and Atlanta police spent hours trying to resolve the situation safely.
They got the Atlanta man down around 2:30 p.m., and all of the lanes reopened about 20 minutes later.
On Jan. 30, a jury convicted Odus of 12 counts of money laundering, but he fled after testifying during his trial and had since been a fugitive, U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said in a previous statement. Odus is one of 41 people charged in four related fraud and money laundering cases known as “Operation Five Fingers.” Buchanan said the individuals charged collected more than $30 million from victims through online scams.
“Fraud schemes, like the ones perpetrated and facilitated by these defendants, inflict considerable losses on citizens, companies and the financial system,” former U.S. Attorney BJ Pak said in 2020. “Some of these schemes target the elderly and often deplete the victims’ entire life savings.”
Odus and his co-conspirators are accused of creating sham companies and registering them with the Georgia Secretary of State. Such companies did not have a physical location, did not generate legitimate income and did not pay wages to employees, Buchanan said. Instead, Buchanan confirmed that they were used to open bank accounts to then funnel fraudulent money.
Sentencing for Odus is scheduled for May 9 in relation to the money laundering conviction. Authorities did not say if Odus would be facing additional charges.
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