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Gbenga Anjorin, a 1992 graduate of a law school in Nigeria, was able to parlay a limited license for foreign lawyers that only allowed him to advise clients on Nigerian law into an apparently thriving practice in the Detroit area, the newspaper reported.
The court assigned him dozens of cases and paid him thousands of dollars. And he represented hundreds of people accused of drunken driving offenses. But it was a civil matter over five crates of kola nuts in 2009 that led to his undoing, according the newspaper.
Stephanie Marino Anderson, the opposing attorney in the nut case, complained to the state about some questionable documents Anjorin had filed to support his claim about a ruined load of nuts, according to the Free Press.
Anjorin, a grievance commission subsequently found, wasn’t licensed to practice law in Michigan. He has been charged with violating his limited license.
Anjorin told the Free Press on Monday he is appealing his disbarment. He declined further comment.
Meanwhile, the courts in which Anjorin handled cases have been left with what Presiding Judge Timothy Kenny of Wayne County Circuit Court's criminal division called a "Nigerian nightmare." Defendants that Anjorin represented were being contacted to decide whether to change pleas in their cases.
Five of six clients who are now in prison, it turns out, plan to stick with their plea deals made with Anjorin as their attorney, Kenny said.
“That’s not too shabby. I’ve gone up against attorneys who I swear had their secretaries change the names of the parties on old pleadings, and they just re-signed it—usually without bothering to find out if the law relied upon is still good,” one person on the American Bar Association Journal website wrote.
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Shucks, if he lived in Chicago...... NOTHING would have happened.
Red flag for Immigration officals !!!!!
Don't worry though...he will be fine as soon as he gets his portion of the King's money for helping him sneak it out of the country.
Nigeria doesn't have a king, it has a president. His name is Goodluck Jonathon.
I took note of this article when I saw Nigeria in the title. Having been based in Lagos last year for a bit working contract employment and, thus, learning more than I really ever needed to know about the country, I was curious.
Only country I've ever been to where nobody anywhere wants their currency (naira). You can't exchange it anywhere.
jetjoky, you missed the point: Many SPAM emails featuring the Nigerian scam feature someone writing a letter saying they are helping a Nigerian King or Prince, and if you send them X dollars to help them get the money out of the country, they will cut you in for millions. Of course, these fools never see a dime.
It was an attempt at humor, and that there is no King is irrelevant.
Send this nigerian back to his own country and let him practice nigerian law there. We don't follow nigerian law in this country.
How could we have possibly missed the Email on this one? Very clever, place to hide business profits.
And people wonder why we don't trust lawyers? Sock it to him, and make him return all money paid to him by the courts.
No, let him keep the money, and make the incompetent fools who were responsible for allowing him to practice law in this country pay the money back, along with a hefty fine for their dereliction of duty to the office and trust for which they have been so amply paid by the citizens of their State.
They disbar every single one of them.
(As if THAT will ever happen!)
In wayne county the judges appoint cases to attorneys based upon how much the gave in political contributions so why are we suprised that the scammers were scamed.