Abake Assongba, a prominent bundler for Barak Obama’s reelection campaign has been accused of running a scam against a Swiss businessman in Florida, which resulted in the poor sot suing to get his $650,000 back. I understand that the very act of even reporting such unpleasantry generally results in rabid accusations of racism from the Left, but in this case, I’ll gladly take the heat.
The individual in question, who it should be noted has as of yet not been charged with a crime, is a New York-based Democrat activist who has donated some $50,000 toward the president’s reelection. She heads a charity called Abake’s Foundation in Benin, Africa, which provides school supplies, clothing and uniforms to needy children in that country.
The foundation also lends small amounts of money to women in Benin at no interest in order to help them pursue entrepreneurial endeavors. According to the charity’s website they have assisted 56 women with loans ranging from 12,000FCFA to 20,000 FCFA, or put more concretely, between about $25 and $42 USD each.
The foundation also cited two specific projects, which it helped to fund. The first is “Project Zemidjan”, to which the foundation gave approximately $61,000 USD and “Christmas in Benin”, which garnered just over $10,000 USD from Abake’s Foundation. What’s interesting about these statistics is that all of the projects for which funding was documented took place in 2009 and prior. The website has a very prominent “donate” section and solicits funding either through Visa, Amex, Master Card, Discovery or direct bank transfer.
On one of the foundation’s websites is a list of current opportunities, breaking them down into Financial Opportunities, Professional Opportunities and Events. Beneath each of these three headings is stated that no opportunities are offered and asks if the visitor would like to host one.
Considering that the foundation has hosted two projects of $61,000 and $10,000, respectively, and has arranged loans in the princely sum of a few hundred bucks spread over 56 women, one wonders how Ms Assongba could afford to give the more than $70,000 reported by the Associated Press to Democrats in recent years (with $50,000 of that going to Obama’s campaign)
The run-in with Swiss businessman Klaus-Werner Pusch is only the latest in what appears to be some other troubles dogging this woman. In addition to claiming he was defrauded of over $650,000, he also claimed that Assongba had impersonated a bank official. According to the AP story, Assongba has “left a trail of debts, with a former landlord demanding in court more than $10,000 in back rent and damages for a previous apartment.” Records also indicate that Ms Assongba was evicted from an apartment back in 2004 for non-payment of rent.
All this sounds vaguely like some of the scams originating out of Nigeria. For instance, one is given to wonder how much money the Abake Foundation really takes in and how much of it has actually found its way to the foundation’s beneficiaries. Given that the foundation is international in scope with its website available in both French and English, it’s possible that some of the donors to the foundation are actually donating to the reelection of president Obama without knowing it.
From the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, to Bill Ayers, to George Kaiser of Solyndra fame to Abake Assangbo, the president has a lot skeletons in his closet. If a Republican had only half as many, the former mainstream media would be going for a public lynching.
Klaus Rohrich is senior columnist for Canada Free Press. Klaus also writes topical articles for numerous magazines. He has a regular column on RetirementHomes and is currently working on his first book dealing with the toxicity of liberalism. His work has been featured on the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, among others. He lives and works in a small town outside of Toronto.
