Oluwaseun Adekoya, the leader of a $2 million fraud and money laundering scheme that exploited the national shared branching network victimizing more than 60 credit unions, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge Mae A. D’Agostino in Albany, N.Y., on Dec. 1.
Three days later, Dec. 4, Adekoya filed notice that he plans to appeal his prison sentence and parts of his $2.2 million restitution order to United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City.
Adekoya’s judgment document listed 63 credit unions from across the country as victims, along with the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The document also included the restitution amounts he must pay to each credit union.
Earlier this year, a jury found Adekoya, 40, of Cliffside Park, N.J., guilty of bank fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and nine counts of aggravated identity theft after a three-week trial, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albany. Dozens of FBI field offices and law enforcement agencies across the nation were involved in this investigation.
“Oluwaseun Adekoya is a remorseless and relentless serial fraudster who has spent his entire adult life enriching himself by using stolen identities to obtain people’s money and credit. Each of his successive crimes has been substantially more sophisticated than the last,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo to Judge D’Agostino.
This case began in May 2022 when Broadview Federal Credit Union employees became suspicious of three individuals who used fake IDs during a series of transactions at a branch in New York’s Albany Capitol Region.
FBI investigators determined Adekoya orchestrated a nationwide conspiracy using tactics described by prosecutors as “Squid Game-style,” recruiting vulnerable individuals, including drug addicts, to impersonate credit union members. He targeted victims from the Capital Region, New Hampshire, California, Alaska and other states, deploying accomplices as far east as Maine, south as Florida and west as Washington state.
From his luxury apartment in New Jersey, Adekoya accessed publicly available information on credit union members’ HELOC accounts, shifting his focus over time to different regions of the country to evade law enforcement scrutiny, prosecutors said.
He used encrypted messaging platforms, such as Telegram, to buy Social Security numbers, account details and other personally identifiable information of credit union members with significant HELOC equity. He then passed the information and forged driver’s licenses to a network of managers and low-level operatives who used the data to impersonate members and withdraw their funds.
To evade detection, Adekoya used numerous “burner” phones, encrypted messaging applications and laundered his substantial share of stolen funds through bank accounts in other people’s names. He also reinvested proceeds into the scheme, buying travel, fake IDs and rental cars for co-conspirators, prosecutors said.
Twelve coconspirators from New York and Virginia have been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution.
In addition to his prison term, Adekoya was ordered to pay $2.2 million in restitution and a mandatory special assessment of $1,100.
As part of his appeal, Adekoya is expected to contest restitution for a $173,219 United States treasury check deposited at Hudson Valley Credit Union, a $19,561 loan at Sunmark Credit Union, a $19,984 loan and a second $20,000 loan at the First New York Federal Credit Union, and a $30,000 transaction at ESL Federal Credit Union. His attorney argued in court documents that these transactions were not within the scope of the “jointly undertaken criminal activity.”
Peter Strozniak can be reached at peter.strozniak@arc-network.com.
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