The 35-year-old who lives at Hyattsville, Maryland listed an At-Home care patient’s address to receive fraudulently obtained unemployment funds and also participated in an Elder Fraud Scheme that scammed 13 victims.
A Nigerian man, Oluwaseyi Akinyemi, has pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud relating to a social media advanced fee fraud scheme that targeted elderly victims.
The 35-year-old who lives at Hyattsville, Maryland listed an At-Home care patient’s address to receive fraudulently obtained unemployment funds and also participated in an Elder Fraud Scheme that scammed 13 victims.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, Erek L. Barron; Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Troy Springer, of the Washington Regional Office, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General; Special Agent in Charge James R. Mancuso of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; and Chief Malik Aziz of the Prince George’s County Police Department.
This was revealed in a statement by the U.S Attorney’s Office issued on Monday.
“This office will prosecute anyone misusing this pandemic crisis to line their own pockets,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron.
“Akinyemi not only took fraudulent advantage of a nursing care patient, a national health crisis, and an employment crisis, but he also caused significant financial harm to 13 elderly victims.”
According to his guilty plea, from July 10, 2018 to April 29, 2019, Akinyemi and at least one co-conspirator colluded to involve in a social media-based elder fraud scheme. Members of the conspiracy targeted elderly victims on social media platforms, impersonating accounts of the victim’s friends in order to vouch for their fraudulent financial scheme and convince the victim to send money in hopes of receiving a financial reward.
Within the scheme to defraud, the conspiracy members presented themselves as agents of real and fictitious government programmes that offered supposed financial benefits to qualifying individuals.
Once the victims demonstrated interest, other members of the conspiracy utilized a new account or persona to represent themselves as an agent of an agency or community fund.
The victim was then instructed to send money in a mail service system to the agency for “taxes and fees.”
Believing that they would receive a financial reward, the victims sent cash, money orders, gift cards, and other valuable items through mail services to Akinyemi as well as other members of the conspiracy in order to obtain a financial reward.
The defendant received packages under the aliases of “Paddy Linkin,” “Flex,” “Joseph Kadin,” and “Anna Marcos,” in addition to other aliases.
After receiving the fraudulently obtained funds, Akinyemi delivered the fraudulently obtained cash to co-conspirators in Nigeria.
During an interview with law enforcement on April 15, 2019, Akinyemi confirmed that he had received packages from victims throughout the country, detailed the scheme to defraud, and informed investigators that individuals in Nigeria were responsible for soliciting the victims to send money to him.
Further, Akinyemi stated that he received approximately $80,000 in the mail in the year prior to his interview.
As part of the scheme to defraud elder victims, Akinyemi and his co-conspirators defrauded at least 13 victims, caused significant financial hardship to victims, and caused a loss of at least $478,145.07 (N272,542,650).
In total, Akinyemi and his co-conspirators used the identities of 19 real individuals to file fraudulent unemployment insurance and PUA claims, caused an actual loss of more than $7,000, and projected an intended loss of $250,000 in state and federal benefits.
Akinyemi faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for each count of mail fraud followed by up to three years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang has scheduled sentencing for April 11, 2022, at 11am.