Nigerian National Based in Maryland Sentenced to 4 Years and 9 Months in Prison

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California, dated July 25, 2023, announcing that Olamide Yusuf Bakare was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to the release, Bakare, co-defendants Quazeem Owolabi Adeyinka and Ayodeji Jonathan Sangode, and others submitted fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims to the States of Maryland and California. It states that EDD and MDOL approved at least 142 fraudulent claims and that the debit cards Bakare used were linked to accounts that received at least $2,265,844. A condominium in Lekki, Lagos State, Nigeria was ordered forfeited as part of the sentence. Adeyinka and Sangode are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd on Aug. 22, 2023.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

PRESS RELEASE



Nigerian National Based in
Maryland Sentenced to 4 Years and
9 Months in Prison and Nigerian
House Ordered Forfeited for
Schemes to Steal Unemployment
Insurance Benefits
Tuesday, July 25, 2023


For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Nigerian national Olamide Yusuf Bakare, 26, currently residing in
Laurel, Maryland, was sentenced today to four years and nine months in prison for
conspiracy to commit wire fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Attorney Phillip A.
Talbert announced.

Bakare pleaded guilty in January 2023. According to court documents, between June
2020 and July 2021, Bakare, along with co-defendants Quazeem Owolabi Adeyinka and
Ayodeji Jonathan Sangode, and others, participated in a conspiracy to submit fraudulent
unemployment insurance (UI) and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims to
the States of Maryland and California. More than 200 individual applications were filed
with the California Employment Development Department (EDD) and the Maryland
Department of Labor (MDOL) indicating that the claimants’ address was the Hyattsville,
Maryland, apartment that the defendants shared.

During the conspiracy, the conspirators obtained the personally identifiable information
(PII) of persons who were not eligible for UI or PUA benefits or who did not authorize
the conspirators to act on their behalf with respect to seeking such benefits. Such PII
included names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. The conspirators then used
the PII to submit dozens of fraudulent UI and PUA claims to EDD and MDOL under the
putative claimants’ identities and without their authorization.
The underlying benefit applications contained fraudulent representations, including, for
example, that the claimants had worked for certain employers and supervisors; had
specific annual incomes; worked during certain time periods; were self-employed in
various occupations; were laid off and had no work; were newly unemployed due to a
disaster including the COVID-19 pandemic; and were currently available to work. Most, if
not all, of these claims were false because the claimants were not so previously working,
employed, newly unemployed, or seeking new employment.

The conspirators knew that these representations were false or lacked the knowledge
and authority to make such representations. These actions caused EDD and MDOL to
approve at least 142 fraudulent UI and PUA claims.

For each approved claim, EDD and MDOL deposited benefit funds into a debit card
account administered by Bank of America and under the identity of the putative
claimant. Bank of America then mailed at least 142 unauthorized debit cards to
addresses under the control of the defendants. Bakare then obtained these debit cards
to withdraw cash at ATMs for the benefit of himself and his coconspirators.

During this conspiracy, Bakare also possessed three additional UI debit cards which had
been issued by Maine’s Bureau of Unemployment Compensation, North Carolina’s
Division of Employment Security, and Nevada’s Department of Employment Training
and Rehabilitation. Each debit card was linked to an account that contained UI benefits.
Bakare was not the named beneficiary on the cards or for the associated benefits, and
he possessed them with intent to defraud the state agencies.

The debit cards that Bakare possessed and used during the conspiracy were linked to
bank accounts that received a total of at least $2,265,844 in fraudulent UI and PUA
benefits. He used this money, in part, to purchase a condominium in Lekki, Lagos State,
Nigeria for $70 million Naira. As part of the sentence, this asset was ordered forfeited.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Department of Labor – Office of the
Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland
Security – Office of the Inspector General – Covid Fraud Unit, and the California EDD –
Investigation Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise N. Yasinow is prosecuting the case.

Adeyinka pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and Sangode pleaded
guilty to access device fraud. Both are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge
Dale A. Drozd on Aug. 22, 2023. Adeyinka faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20
years in prison, and Sangode faces a maximum statutory penalty of 15 years in prison.
Their actual sentences, however, will be determined at the discretion of the Court after
consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines,
which take into account a number of variables.

This effort is part of a California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force operation,
one of three interagency COVID-19 fraud strike force teams established by the U.S.
Department of Justice. The California Strike Force combines law enforcement and
prosecutorial resources in the Eastern and Central Districts of California and focuses on
large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and
transnational actors. The strike forces use prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams
to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.

Updated July 25, 2023

Topic
CORONAVIRUS
Component
USAO - California, Eastern


File and source

File

2023-07-27-Nigerian-National-Based-in-Maryland-Sentenced-to-4-Years-and-9-Months-in-Prison-and-Nigerian-House.pdf

Size

168,455 bytes

SHA-256

f4f1ac5ac408c7ab48adf9504c16f8cffe4c5fdb9c542048e41df0954464a0e7

Our copy

2023-07-27-Nigerian-National-Based-in-Maryland-Sentenced-to-4-Years-and-9-Months-in-Prison-and-Nigerian-House.pdf

Original

No public link identified.