假 to do it until you make it：男子被控运营虚假政府机构 这名尼日利亚人在联邦大楼内租用办公空间、开设银行账户，甚至与外国外交官举行会晤。他坚称自己是无辜的。
Fake It ’Til You Make It: Man Charged With Running Phony Government Agency The Nigerian secured office space in a federal building, opened bank accounts and even held meetings with foreign diplomats. He says he is innocent.
一名尼日利亚男子被指控成立虚假政府机构，并为其骗取公共资金以及联邦政府大楼内的办公空间，目前他已被控伪造罪和冒充罪。
A Nigerian man accused of setting up an fraudulent government agency and securing public money for it and office space in a federal government complex has been charged with forgery and impersonation.
检察官表示，阿德尼伊·阿德耶米（Adeniyi Adeyemi）从2024年开始冒充总统海外投资促进委员会（Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council）负责人，并通过伪造文件申请办公室和银行账户。周三，他在尼日利亚首都阿布贾的一家联邦高等法院出庭，并对针对他的全部八项指控表示不认罪。
Prosecutors say that Adeniyi Adeyemi posed as the head of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council beginning in 2024, forging documents to request offices and bank accounts. He appeared in a Federal High Court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on Wednesday, and pleaded not guilty to all eight charges against him.
尼日利亚人正密切关注此案，并对政府称根本不存在的机构竟然能在该国官僚机构的最高层运作感到震惊。批评人士称，这起丑闻暴露了尼日利亚政府核心层的腐败，人们也对总统办公厅主任在其中所扮演的角色提出了质疑。
Nigerians are closely following the case, shocked that an agency the government says does not exist could operate at the highest levels of the country’s bureaucracy. Critics say that the scandal exposes corruption at the heart of the Nigerian government, and questions have been raised surrounding the role played by the president’s chief of staff.
尼日利亚总统博拉·蒂努布（Bola Tinubu）的一名发言人表示，总统办公厅主任去年10月首先举报了这个非法机构，向警方和该国内政情报机构发去信函，要求对该机构“伪造官方任命信”的行为进行调查。“他们一直把自己伪装成一个合法的政府机构，与外国人和尼日利亚公民举行会晤，”信中写道。阿德耶米还被指控提交正式申请，请求外交部协助办理前往美国的签证。
A spokesman for President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria said that his chief of staff first blew the whistle on the illegal agency last October, sending a letter to the police and the country’s domestic intelligence agency asking them to investigate the agency for “the forgery of official appointment letters.”“They have been parading themselves as a legitimate government agency, hosting meetings with both foreigners and Nigerian citizens,” the letter read. Mr. Adeyemi was also accused of submitting a formal request asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate visas to the United States.
阿德耶米经常在社交媒体上发布自己与政府官员、外交官和外国投资者会面的视频，他否认该机构是虚假的，也否认自己是个骗子。
Mr. Adeyemi, who often posted videos of himself meeting with government officials, diplomats and foreign investors on social media, has denied that the agency was fake or that he is a fraud.
他在6月举行了一场新闻发布会，声称自己通过代理人向幕僚长支付了4亿奈拉（约合30万美元）的贿赂，以确保自己获得该机构负责人的职位。他说，在姆·巴贾比米拉（Femi Gbajabiamila）要求更多的钱之后，他和身为幕僚长的巴贾比米拉产生了分歧。巴贾比米拉没有立即回应置评请求。
ld a news conference in June at which he claimed he paid the chief of staff a bribe of 400 million naira (about $300,000) through a proxy, to secure his position as the head of the agency. He said that he and the chief of staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, disagreed after Mr. Gbajabiamila requested even more money. Mr. Gbajabiamila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
目前尚不清楚阿德耶米（Adeyemi）在被宣称任命领导该政府机构之前的职业是什么，尽管蒂努布（Tinubu）的发言人称他“有欺诈性虚假陈述的历史”。公共文件显示，甚至在巴贾比米拉发出警报且阿德耶米被捕之后，该机构仍被划拨了近100万美元的公共资金，尽管官员们表示这些资金并未下拨。
Mr. Adeyemi’s profession before his purported appointment to lead the government agency is unclear, though Mr. Tinubu’s spokesman said he had “a history of fraudulent misrepresentation.”Even after Mr. Gbajabiamila raised the alarm and Mr. Adeyemi was arrested, public documents show the agency was allocated nearly $1 million in public funds, though officials have said no funds were released.
8月份，一个政府委员会表示，没有发现任何证据将巴贾比米拉与阿德耶米的任命联系起来，并称阿德耶米伪造了政府文件。该委员会补充说，幕僚长办公室从未发出过任何信函，且他们没有发现阿德耶米与巴贾比米拉之间有任何官方政府信件的痕迹。
In August, a government commission said it had found no evidence linking Mr. Gbajabiamila to Mr. Adeyemi’s appointment and that Mr. Adeyemi had forged government documents, adding that the chief of staff’s office never issued any letters and that they had found no trace of any official government correspondence between Mr. Adeyemi and Mr. Gbajabiamila.
8月份，蒂努布还下令对第二个虚假机构——国家品牌发展和“尼罗河制造”特别项目办公室（National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office）展开调查。官员们表示，该机构同样在一个政府办公地点非法运营。
In August, Mr. Tinubu also ordered an investigation into a second fake agency, the National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office. The agency was also operating illegally from a government office, officials said.
埃马纽埃尔·阿金沃图（Emmanuel Akinwotu）对本文亦有贡献。
Emmanuel Akinwotu contributed reporting.
露丝·麦克林（Ruth Maclean）是《纽约时报》西非分社社长，负责报道包括尼日利亚、刚果、萨赫勒地区国家以及中非在内的25个国家。
Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief for The Times, covering 25 countries including Nigeria, Congo, the countries in the Sahel region as well as Central Africa.