Wisconsin revokes attorney’s license for mishandling trust funds, practicing with a suspended license

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John O. Ifediora, a retired University of Wisconsin-Platteville professor and Madison attorney, had his license to practice law in Wisconsin revoked in January for professional misconduct.

Ifediora, a naturalized American originally from Nigeria and now living in Virginia, is also required to pay the full costs of the proceedings, which came to a total of $12,305.23. According to court documents obtained by the Wisconsin Law Journal, Ifediora, who had his license suspended in 2016 for failing to comply with continuing legal education requirements, committed 11 counts of misconduct related to the handling of funds and one count of practicing law while his license was suspended.

According to the Council of African Security and Development (CASCADE), Ifediora currently serves as President of the Council on African Security and Development.   According to his website, Ifediora is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin System, and currently in the faculty of Economics at American University, Washington, DC.

He earned a B.A. from Dakota Wesleyan University; M.A. from The University of Chicago; M.St. from Oxford; M.S. from Cambridge; Juris Doctor (JD), from University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School; Ph.D. in Development Economics/Applied Economics from University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ph.D. in Economics/Public Policy Analysis from University of Illinois at Chicago; and did his post-graduate studies in economics at the London School of Economics.

For the past three decades, he lectured at a number of universities in the United States, Europe, and Africa, while serving as a consultant to governments in Africa, and to state governments in the United States.   He advised the Wisconsin Department of Revenue on its Tax Incidence Study, served as a special consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, advised Illinois State Senate. Ifediora also provided guidance on various public healthcare initiatives at the federal level to various African governments, according to this website.

While Ifediora initially filed a notice to appeal the decision, he voluntarily dismissed the appeal before any briefs were filed.

The Office of Lawyer Compliance (OLC) filed a complaint against Ifediora in January 2022. All 12 counts arose from Ifediora’s representation of his first cousin, named in the court documents as O.A., a Nigerian citizen who sought his help with becoming a permanent U.S. citizen. Although Ifediora told OLC he retired from practicing law, he wanted to help O.A. merely on a “familial basis.”

To help O.A. become a permanent resident, Ifediora referred his cousin to the Immigrant Investor Program, administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. As part of this program, a person who invests $500,000 in a new commercial enterprise that creates more than 10 jobs will have a path to permanent residency. The investment can be to a U.S. business or an indirect investment in an EB-5 regional center.

According to court documents, Ifediora learned about U.S. Foods and Pharmaceuticals (USFP), a Madison start-up working with an EB-5 regional center in Detroit. He notified both organizations he had a potential investor. Ifediora also contacted an immigration lawyer, Ebere Ekechukwu, to facilitate the filing of a petition to establish O.A.’s eligibility for the EB-5 program.

In 2014, Ifediora advised his cousin to invest $500,000 in USFP, in conjunction with the Detroit center, as part of the EB-5 petition. He also advised O.A. that the center required a nonrefundable $50,000 processing fee. Ifediora worked with all parties to obtain the required documents to start the EB-5 petition process.

Once he received the funds, Ifediora did not handle them properly, according to referee James D. Friedman. Ifediora placed $50,000 in his firm’s operating account, rather than into a trust account. He also failed to notify the Detroit center in writing that he received the client funds associated with its processing fee, nor did he promptly deliver them to the organization. Instead, he moved the $50,000 from the firm’s bank account into other bank accounts he owned.

On Nov. 10, 2014, USFP sent Ifediora a $200,000 check to repay a loan that Ifediora made to O.A. as part of the initial $500,000 EB-5 petition. R.V., a company representative, testified in subsequent federal litigation that Ifediora promised the funds would be placed in an escrow account. Instead, he deposited the funds into his business account. He later moved nearly $190,000 to his personal account and paid $10,600 to Ekechukwu for her legal work on the petition. Ifediora also failed to notify his cousin that he received the $200,000.

In May 2018, Ifediora received a $6,000 interest payment from USFP for the money O.A. invested with them. He failed to notify O.A. about receiving the funds and subsequently converted them for his personal use, according to court documents.

In November 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services informed Ifediora and USFP that it intended to deny the petition filed on O.A.’s behalf. Although his law license was suspended, Ifediora continued to represent his cousin by coordinating with USFP and Ekechukwu on how to respond.

After his petition was denied, O.A. informed Ifediora to discontinue all further efforts and asked his cousin to refund the money he set aside for the investment. Ifediora failed to respond to O.A.’s request and failed to surrender his property.

After failing to receive his funds, O.A. filed a federal civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin against Ifediora, USFP and others, seeking a refund of his investment money. Ifediora subsequently reached a settlement with all parties to pay back the funds.

In January 2020, O.A. filed a grievance against Ifediora with the OLR. An evidentiary hearing was held before Friedman in March 2023.  He found numerous aspects of Ifediora’s testimony at the evidentiary hearing to be “incredible,” according to court documents. For example, while Ifediora claimed he was merely acting as O.A.’s agent and not as his attorney, Friedman noted that in emails that Ifediora sent to O.A., he expressly said he was acting as his lawyer. The referee also found Ifediora represented himself to third parties as O.A.’s attorney.

The referee issued his report and recommendation on June 22, 2023. Friedman found that OLR met its burden of proof as to all of the counts of misconduct alleged in the complaint. He agreed with OLR that revocation of Ifediora’s license to practice law would be an appropriate sanction for his misconduct.

“Ifediora had no immigration law experience and no familiarity with this program and yet he tried to lead someone through it — that is primarily what caused [O.A.’s] losses here,” Friedman wrote.

“We agree that the seriousness of Attorney Ifediora’s misconduct warrants the revocation of his license to practice law. Conversion of client funds is a very serious offense, and we have frequently revoked attorneys’ licenses in similar cases,” wrote Chief Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler in a concurrent decision.

Justices Rebecca Grassl Bradley, Brian Hagedorn and Jill J. Karofsky also joined the concurrent decision.

The Wisconsin Law Journal reached out to Ifediora for comment on multiple occasions, but he could not be reached prior to publication.

Steve Schuster contributed to this report.