The Federal Bureau of Investigation has provided details of how Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu, a Nigerian-American and former senior officer at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, allegedly made over a million dollars from desperate immigration applicants by bypassing rigorous background checks, required interviews, and supervisory reviews to obtain permanent residency and citizenship.
Despite the Donald Trump administration’s clampdown on immigration, Mr Ganiyu allegedly used his position as a USCIS senior officer to access applications from Nigerians and foreigners in the Electronic Immigration System and grant unlawful approvals between December 2019 and March 2026.
Mr Ganiyu, working in the Dallas Field Office, came under scrutiny after colleagues found he went to great lengths to approve green card applications, including those of individuals outside his jurisdiction and purview.
For instance, Mr Ganiyu assigned himself as the ISO2 (immigration service officer) on the I-130 immigration application (petition for alien relative) of M.N. (the applicant’s full name was redacted to initials in filings), even though the case was in the Minneapolis-St. Paul field office, according to court documents. Although he was in the Dallas Office, he made himself the case officer on November 3, 2022. On the same day, he approved the application after bypassing supervisory review.
A supervisory review is the stage where a case officer forwards the completed application to his supervisor for final review and approval.
Mr Ganiyu skipped this step and approved M.N.’s immigration application for their family member.
In May 2023, Mr Ganiyu assigned himself as the case officer for the applications of M.N.’s three children, which he deselected for a supervisory review before approving them all. Analysis of phone records showed that Mr Ganiyu contacted M.N. at least 20 times, which coincided with $40,000 deposited in tranches between December 2022 and August 2024.
In another case, Mr Ganiyu assigned himself as the case officer for the applications of Charles A’s three children, even though it was outside his jurisdiction, on May 3, 2023. That same day, he deselected supervisory review and approved their I-130 applications.
FI investigations showed Mr Ganiyu received about $37,000 from Charles A between January 2024 and December 2025. Mr Ganiyu also received $4,500 from Cyber 47 LLC, a company where Mr Charles A. was a registered agent.
Phone call records showed at least one contact between the duo, which overlapped with one of the numerous financial transactions, the FBI alleged.
Mr Ganiyu’s colleagues reported him to the USCIS Office of Investigations in May 2025, stating that he was processing applications “outside common practice and policy”.
The claim triggered an investigation into his government email, which scrutinised Mr Ganiyu’s financial records and subsequently revealed transactions of over a million dollars that did not match his annual earnings.
“Specifically, Ganiyu made approximately $287,830 worth of cash deposits and received approximately $671,438 in direct payments from individuals via Zelle, CashApp, or other financial platforms,” a court document stated.
He had no second job or business to support his USCIS job and could not account for the source of the funds.
A review of the depositors showed their names were also registered in the USCIS database and that they either had approved or pending applications at the time.
Investigators found that Adeniyi Akeem Somoye, an immigration applicant, paid about $5,500 to Mr Ganiyu around the same time his N-400 application for naturalisation was approved. Mr Ganiyu also processed other immigration applications by Mr Somoye’s spouse and child, filed and pending since 2019, in 2023.
A further review of his bank records showed that Mr Somoye wired $138,392 via bank transfers, and an additional $21,900 from Double A Favor, LLC, a company managed by Mr Somoye. Investigators analysed the duo’s phone records and found out they had both been in contact around the same time the applications were approved.
The probe widened to cover individual and corporate entities that credited Mr Owolabi’s accounts via Zelle and his JPMorgan Chase accounts, which were cross-checked with USCIS applicants with pending matters.
Among the creditors was an applicant, Mariam Nyar, for whom Mr Ganiyu approved the I-130 immigration application in September 2022 and her ‘Application to Register Permanent Residence’ in November 2022.
“Ganiyu had multiple unattributable cash deposits and directly received funds from numerous individuals who had pending applications for USCIS,” an FBI special agent told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. “Ganiyu made approximately $287,830 worth of cash deposits and received approximately $671,438 in direct payments from individuals via Zelle, CashApp, or other financial platforms.”
The FBI listed seven other individuals whose phone and bank records established a connection to Mr Ganiyu.
In one instance in November 2023, Mr Owolabi, who was stationed in Dallas, Texas, approved the application of H.E.O, an applicant outside his jurisdiction. A review of their phone records showed that they both had been in contact at least seven times.
FBI special agent Natalie Stewart told the court that the FBI believed Mr Ganiyu received more than a $1.7 million bribe, as that was the only money traced to his account. She said Mr Ganiyu must have also received cash from the applicants.
