Thread: Maine Does Another Thorough Job Of Checking Into People!

Member of city board quits after guilty plea

Portland Maine officials were unaware that planner Shalom Odokara, who runs Women in Need, had legal troubles.
By TREVOR MAXWELL, Staff Writer July 3, 2009



PORTLAND — The vice chairwoman of Portland's Planning Board resigned abruptly Thursday afternoon, hours after city officials learned that she recently pleaded guilty to criminal charges in federal court.

Shalom Odokara, 49, has served on the board since 2005. She is well known in Maine as an advocate for women's rights, immigrants and victims of domestic violence. Through her nonprofit organization, Women In Need Industries, Odokara coordinates the annual Festival of Nations, which is scheduled to be held later this month at Deering Oaks.

At a hearing last week in Portland, Odokara pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements to her federal probation officer.

She was on probation after pleading guilty in 2006 for her role in a scheme that involved the embezzlement of $108,000 from the World Bank. According to court records in Washington, D.C., Odokara was a consultant to the World Bank when she and a friend carried out the scheme over several months in 2001.

Odokara was sentenced in March 2008 to five years of probation, during which she was required to report her financial activity to a probation officer. The government learned that Odokara had since provided false information about her finances and had forged bank statements she provided to the officer. She faces a maximum of one year in prison when she is sentenced Oct. 13.

Other Planning Board members and city officials were unaware of Odokara's 2006 conviction, the probation violation and the possibility that she will go to prison.

Early Thursday afternoon, city spokeswoman Nicole Clegg said officials had just been informed of the situation, and they intended to review the facts to determine what impact the conviction might have on Odokara's position on the Planning Board. Around 4 p.m., however, Odokara resigned.

"As a practical matter at this point, there would be no reason for us to investigate," Clegg said afterward.

"I feel betrayed," said City Councilor John Anton, who voted earlier this year to reappoint Odokara to the Planning Board. He said the city should consider requiring disclosure from board members about criminal cases in which they are involved.

"If someone applies to be a taxi driver or to get a liquor license, we do a criminal background check," Anton said. "Yet we don't do that for the people who are setting the standards. It is not necessarily grounds for denial if a person has convictions, but it is information that we should have to make informed decisions."

Bruce Merrill, Odokara's defense lawyer, said he advised his client Thursday to resign from the board and to focus on the upcoming sentencing.

Merrill said Odokara only told a few people about her legal situation because she was embarrassed and feared the assumptions people might make about her character. Odokara declined to comment for this story.

"Would she have been better off telling everybody? Probably, yes. But people make mistakes," Merrill said.

COLLEGE DEGREES, DRUG CONVICTION

Odokara is one of six children of well-known educators from Nigeria. According to the International Career Advancement Program in Aspen, Colo., she received a degree in economics in 1981 from McPherson College in Kansas and a master's in multicultural psychology from Bowie State University in Maryland.

In 1989, she was arrested and later convicted for trafficking heroin from Nigeria to Maryland. She served 1 1/2 years in prison and successfully completed parole in 1993, court records show.

A.J. Kramer, the federal public defender who represented Odokara in the World Bank case, wrote that she was "pregnant, desperate and penniless" when her boyfriend convinced her to smuggle heroin into the United States.

"Following that experience, Ms. Odokara was able to get on her feet and start helping others," Kramer wrote in court papers.

Odokara founded Women In Need...in Washington in 1995. She moved to Maine in 2002 and organized the first Festival of Nations a year later.

In past interviews with the Portland Press Herald, Odokara has described her organization as a "resource hub" for women, offering services that range from temporary housing to job training and cultural orientation classes. As an advocate, Odokara has spoken at events around the world.

In February 2006, a federal grand jury in Washington indicted Odokara, along with a friend of hers who worked for the World Bank, on conspiracy, money laundering and other charges.

According to court records, prosecutors said Aissatou Koundoul wired a total of $108,000 to Odokara from March to September 2001. The money was supposed to go to other World Bank contractors.

At the time, Odokara's nonprofit agency, Women In Need, was receiving money from the World Bank to provide services to victims of domestic violence.

Prosecutors said Odokara kept about $66,000 and kicked back about $42,000 to Koundoul, who remains at large.

Odokara admitted that she received the money and returned some to Koundoul, and she pleaded guilty to the one count of conspiracy. But she maintained that she did not know the funds had been embezzled from the World Bank.

In court records, Odokara said she believed she was helping Koundoul's husband bring money from overseas into the United States. Her lawyer said Odokara deserved leniency.

"Since moving to Maine in early 2002 and building Women In Need in that region, Ms. Odokara has risen to prominence in terms of advocating on behalf of victims of domestic violence, both in Maine and nationally," Kramer wrote. Her life and her work "are about helping people who need help, who lack a voice, who are often overlooked by those in power."

BANK STATEMENTS FORGED

After her sentencing in March 2008, Odokara was required to submit a monthly report of any checking or savings accounts in her control. The information Odokara provided to the probation officer did not match with the activity in her personal checking account or an account opened under her name and the name of Women In Need.

Odokara also admitted to forging bank statements in an attempt to support the false figures she gave to the probation officer.

Merrill, Odokara's lawyer, said his client co-mingled accounts when she should not have.

"In the end, it will be established that she didn't misappropriate any funds; she didn't take any money she wasn't entitled to," Merrill said. "She was essentially a lousy bookkeeper. I have no information to suggest she has ever misused any money given to Women In Need."

U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby, who accepted Odokara's guilty pleas June 26, expressed concerns about the financial management of Women In Need. He arranged for an accounting firm to take control of the agency's books. Odokara is executive director of the agency, which has board members located around the world.

Dr. Chinyere Okafor, professor of English and Women's Studies at Wichita State University in Kansas, is chairwoman of the board for Women In Need. In an e-mail Thursday, Okafor expressed full confidence and support for Odokara. She also said the Festival of Nations will go on as planned July 25.

"Ms. Odokara is a passionate leader who consistently provides both a voice and link to resources for underprivileged women," Okafor wrote. "Our organization's finances undergo careful review and are currently managed by an outstanding local accounting firm. Like all nonprofits in this economy, we struggle, but we are not and have never been fiscally irresponsible."

Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at:[/b]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com

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