Nigerian 40-year-old serial scammer man Oluwaseun Adekoya, with many aliases of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Adekoya Led Conspiracies That Stole and Laundered Over $2 Million by Impersonating People All Over the Country.
According to the FBI, a jury found Adekoya guilty of bank fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and nine counts of aggravated identity theft after a three-week trial earlier in the year.
The FBI press release affirmed that proof at trial established that from the comfort of his luxury apartment in New Jersey, Adekoya, a career fraudster, obtained publicly available information regarding people’s home equity lines of credit (“HELOCs”) at localized credit unions throughout the United States, shifting his focus over time to different parts of the country to avoid law enforcement scrutiny.
Adekoya then gave this information to a vast web of managers he recruited from all over the country, along with fake driver’s licenses for lower-level workers to use to impersonate the HELOC customers and conduct withdrawal transactions on their accounts.
To insulate himself from detection, Adekoya utilized a web of “burner” phones and encrypted messaging applications and laundered his substantial share of the proceeds through bank accounts in other people’s names.
The serial scammer also reinvested some of the proceeds into continuing the fraud scheme by purchasing air and bus travel for coconspirators, fake driver’s licenses, and rental cars used to drive workers to credit unions.
The 40-year-old Nigerian citizen, previously obtained lawful permanent resident status in the United States in 2004.
In sentencing Adekoya, U.S. District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino noted that Adekoya is a “a perpetual thief” and a “flagrant serial offender” who has orchestrated increasingly sophisticated felony identity-theft and fraud offenses since he started his criminal career in 2008 at the age of 22.
“For nearly two decades, Oluwaseun Adekoya abused the privilege of lawful permanent resident status to steal the identities of innocent Americans so he could live lavishly in our country, without an ounce of remorse,” Acting U.S. Attorney Sarcone said.
“Now he gets to spend two decades in prison, and he deserves every last day of his sentence. I look forward to his subsequent removal from the United States.”
Special Agent in Charge Tremaroli stated: “Mr. Adekoya spent almost two decades of his life creating a massive criminal network that stole from hard-working Americans. This sentence ensures he’ll spend the next two decades of his life in federal prison.
“The FBI is grateful to the numerous law enforcement and banking institution partners who provided the assistance needed to take down Mr. Adekoya and his associates and ensure justice for the victims.
“We remain deeply committed to using every resource available to investigate and bring to justice any individual or organization focused on defrauding our citizens.”
As part of Adekoya’s sentence, he will also be required to serve five years of supervised release and pay restitution of over $2.2 million and a mandatory special assessment of $1,100. He is also subject to removal from the United States upon completion of his term of imprisonment.