A jury box
A New Jersey man is expected to be sentenced in October for orchestrating a national fraud scheme by exploiting the credit union shared branching network, stealing more than $2 million from members’ HELOC accounts.
After federal prosecutors called more than 60 witnesses during a two-and-a-half week trial in federal court in Albany, N.Y., a jury found Oluwaseun Adekoya, 39, guilty of bank fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and nine counts of aggravated identity theft in late June, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
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From the comfort of his luxury apartment in New Jersey, Adekoya obtained publicly available information regarding people’s HELOCs at credit unions throughout the U.S., shifting his focus over time to different parts of the country, primarily to evade law enforcement scrutiny.
He then used encrypted messaging platforms, like Telegram, to obtain Social Security numbers, account numbers, mother’s maiden names and other personally identifiable information (PII) for individuals he had identified as having substantial amounts of equity available in their HELOC accounts.
He also recruited a vast web of co-conspirators throughout the country and supplied them the PII and fake driver’s licenses for lower-level operatives, which they used to impersonate the HELOC members and withdraw cash from their accounts.
Thirteen additional co-conspirators were involved in the nationwide fraud scheme. All have pleaded guilty to various criminal charges related to the conspiracy and are expected to be sentenced later this year, prosecutors said.
To insulate himself from detection, Adekoya used burner phones and encrypted messaging applications. He also laundered his substantial share of the stolen money through bank accounts in other people’s names.
To sustain the fraud scheme, Adekoya spent some of the stolen money on air and bus travel and rental cars to transport co-conspirators to credit union branches.
When the FBI attempted to enter his apartment in December 2023 to execute a federal search warrant, Adekoya wiped the primary phone he had used to orchestrate the conspiracy. Nonetheless, the FBI seized numerous “burner” phones used by him. The FBI also seized hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of luxury merchandise, including Rolex watches, a $51,000 Tiffany engagement ring, designer handbags and shoes, and approximately $26,000 in a bank account used by Adekoya to launder the stolen funds. The government has since forfeited those items.
Police launched an investigation in May 2022 when three of the conspirators were caught attempting to defraud a Cohoes, N.Y., branch of CAP COM Federal Credit Union where employees became suspicious and called police. CAP COM merged into State Employees Federal Credit Union during the summer of 2022 to form the $8.8 billion Broadview Federal Credit Union in Albany, N.Y. Police handed over their investigation to the FBI.
A superseding indictment identified additional credit unions targeted in the scheme, including the $1.1 billion Sunmark Credit Union in Latham, N.Y., the $138 million UFirst Federal Credit Union in Plattsburgh, N.Y., the Damascus, Va., branch of the $5.1 billion Truliant Federal Credit Union, the Summerville, S.C., branch of the $3.8 billion Grow Financial Federal Credit Union and the $770 million First Heritage Federal Credit Union in Corning, N.Y.
Prosecutors said Adekoya could face a maximum prison sentence of up to 32 years.
Peter Strozniak can be reached at [email protected].
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Peter Strozniak
Credit Union Times reporter covering credit union operations, fraud, M&As, leagues, business continuity, and breaking news.
