Sport brothers condemned for charity fraud
THE CHARITY Commission has condemned a famous sporting family who have been jailed for their “deliberate, wilful and cynical abuse” of a charity set up to help poor African children.
Ex-footballers Efe Sodje, 46, who played for Huddersfield Town, and Stephen Sodje, 43, along with ex-rugby player Bright Sodje, 52, were found guilty and jailed for siphoning off money from their family charity, the Sodje Sports Foundation (SSF).
The Charity Commission worked closely with the National Crime Agency (NCA) to secure the prosecution. Tracy Howarth, the commission’s head of regulatory compliance, claimed the defendants had “misused their privileged position to exploit donors and supporters” at the “expense of the children and causes the charity was supposed to support”.
She said: “The outcome of this case sends a strong message that the deliberate, wilful and cynical abuse of charity for private financial gain will be investigated - and will not go unpunished.”
The convictions in 2017 can only now be reported at the conclusion of a separate money laundering case involving Efe and exPremiership star Sam Sodje, 39, who was cleared over the fraud.
The NCA’s deputy director Chris Farrimond said: “Bright, Efe and Stephen Sodje promoted themselves as generous, community-minded figures when they were knowingly defrauding people who thought they were helping deprived children in Nigeria.”
He added that the NCA “showed beyond doubt that for most of the foundation’s existence there was no charitable purpose”.
A FAMOUS sporting family has been “shamed” for milking a charity set up for poor African children, it can now be reported.
Ex-footballers Efe Sodje, 46, and Stephen Sodje, 43, and exrugby player Bright Sodje, 52, were found guilty and jailed for siphoning off money from their family charity, the Sodje Sports Foundation (SSF).
The fraud trial had heard how the Sodjes set up their charity in 2009 to help provide sporting facilities to youngsters in Nigeria. Ashley Carson, a businessman and director of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, and one of the city’s MPs, Clive Betts, were recruited to give the charity respectability – but when they asked for bank statements and financial reports, they were fobbed off.
Once the pair resigned as trustees and directors in 2013, “the amount of money being transferred to the Sodje family increased dramatically”, prosecutor Julian Christopher QC said.
Cash raised at black tie dinners, auctions, charity football matches and a clay pigeon shoot went into Sodje bank accounts.
Efe Sodje, a former Huddersfield Town player, handed out Easter eggs – provided by the hospital
– to child cancer patients, while five Sodje brothers attended a £150-a-head black tie dinner.
The event raised almost £11,500, but Mr Christopher said: “Not a penny went to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.”
Sentencing, Judge Michael Topolski QC told the defendants: “You have brought shame upon yourselves and your family.”
He sentenced Stephen Sodje, of Bexley, to two years and six months in prison, saying he lied repeatedly to the jury and was a “self-regarding and arrogant man with a strong sense of self-entitlement”.
The court heard he received about £30,000 from the charity funds, but continued to protest his innocence, describing it as expenses or wages.
His lawyer Kieran Galvin said the conviction was “shattering” and a “massive fall from grace”.
Father-of-one Efe Sodje, who was “the face” of the charity, was given 18 months in jail, having received around £7,500 plus an unknown amount of cash from a clay pigeon shoot.
He collapsed in the dock and staggered away supported on each side by officers.
Bright Sodje, of Sale, Greater Manchester, a former rugby league player for Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, Hull Kingston Rovers and Sheffield Eagles, was jailed for 21 months for his part in “milking the charity”.
The judge said they “exploited their own and their families’ reputation”.
Efe Sodje, of Cheadle, Greater Manchester, was cleared of money laundering last year but Emmanuel Ehikhamen, 53, of London, and Andrew Oruma, 50, of Bexley, London, were convicted. Another brother Akpo Sodje, 37, was implicated, but moved to Dubai and has refused to return to Britain to be interviewed.
You have brought shame upon yourselves and your family. Judge Michael Topolski QC, sentencing the defendants.