U.S. court has sentenced Oluwaseun ‘Sanatana’ Adekoya to 20 years in prison for stealing and laundering $2million in bank and wire fraud.
Described as “Nigerian ringleader of nationwide bank fraud and money laundering conspiracies,” U.S. Department of Justice in a statement, said Mr Adekoya led fraud syndicate that stole and laundered over $2 million by impersonating people across the country.
The 40 years old “serial scammer” earlier this year was found “guilty of bank fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and nine counts of aggravated identity theft after a three-week trial.”
Mr Adekoya, who led a massive criminal network, according to Department of Justice, was sentenced on Tuesday by Acting United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III and Craig L. Tremaroli.
Though Mr Adekoya previously obtained lawful permanent resident status in the United States of America in 2004, he would be deported after serving his jail sentence.
His sentence also included serving five years of supervised release and paying restitution of over $2.2 million and a mandatory special assessment of $1,100.
According to Departme of Justice, proof at trial established that from the comfort of his luxury apartment in New Jersey, Mr Adekoya obtained publicly available information regarding people’s home equity lines of credit (“HELOCs”) at localized credit unions throughout the United States of America, shifting his focus over time to different parts of the country to avoid law enforcement scrutiny.
Described as a notorious “career fraudster,” the Department of Justice said, “Adekoya then utilized encrypted messaging platforms, like Telegram, to obtain Social Security numbers, account numbers, mother’s maiden names, and other personal identifying information (“PII”) for individuals he had identified as having substantial amounts of equity available in their HELOCs.
It added, “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.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Sarcone said, “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.
He added, “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.”
