A Nigerian national living in Plano was sentenced to 34 years in federal prison for a fraud scheme that victimized multiple senior citizens, as well as the Community Independent School District and a charity that helps families of the terminally ill.
According to information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 30-year-old Babatope Aderinoye, was convicted in October of 2020, on charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, as well as aggravated identity theft and mail fraud.
Aderinoye committed the crimes by obtaining fake passports using other people’s identities. He then used those passports to set up fake businesses and bank accounts. Investigators connected him to at least 13 different aliases, 12 fake businesses and 40 fraudulent bank accounts. They believe there could be more.
He and his co-conspirators used various e-mail compromise scams and telephone compromise scams to defraud the victims. They would pose as someone familiar and encourage their victims to wire funds to fraudulent bank accounts.
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Once the money arrived in Aderinoye’s fraudulent accounts, he would withdraw the funds and transfer them to a bank account he had set up in Nigeria. According to Fox4 News, between June 2018 and September 2019, Aderinoye stole more than $6.7 million from his victims, included a man who lost his entire retirement savings, Community ISD in southeastern Collin County and the non-profit organization Project 4031.
“The types of fraud committed by Mr. Aderinoye and his co-conspirators not only have lasting ramifications for the affected victims but also threaten the integrity of our country’s financial systems,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.
However, The FBI is reportedly still working on the case to identify potential victims and Aderinoye’s co-conspirators. In addition to his prison sentence, Aderinoye was ordered to pay nearly $2 million in restitution.
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