U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark A. Totten Wednesday announced that four individuals pleaded guilty to federal charges for participating in an international mail and wire fraud scheme originating in Nigeria and frequently targeting elderly individuals.
Fatai Okunola, 37, of Kalamazoo, Michigan; Oluwaseyi Adeola, 34, of Dallas, Texas; and Cory McDougal, 33, of Romeoville, Illinois, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and Ijeoma Adeola, 36, also of Dallas, Texas, pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony (the failure to report the commission of a felony to appropriate authorities and taking an affirmative step to assist in the concealment of the crime) for her role in affirmatively concealing the operations of the conspiracy.
Fatai Okunola additionally pleaded guilty to making false statements on his application for naturalisation as a United States citizen and money laundering related to assisting other individuals in purchasing vehicles with money from the fraud scheme and exporting the vehicles to Nigeria.
“Securing these guilty pleas is a step forward to ensuring justice for the victims of this international fraud scheme,” said Totten. “The defendants used modern technology, including the internet and social media platforms – something we all rely upon every day to communicate and carry out legitimate tasks in our daily lives – to prey on elderly and vulnerable victims.”
The U.S. attorney added, “Some of the victims in this case lost their retirement savings, took loans against their homes, or suffered other financial distress because of the defendants’ alleged lies. My office will vigorously pursue sentences that appropriately reflect the seriousness of this financial fraud and the damage they have done to the public’s confidence in the information we all receive over the internet every day.”
According to court records, the defendants conspired with individuals primarily in Nigeria to defraud individuals in the United States, many that were elderly or particularly vulnerable, through a variety of fraud schemes using interstate wire transmissions or the mail system.
The conspirators in Nigeria created false online personas to develop relationships with their victims over the internet, through social media, by text messages or by telephone. These relationships centred around romantic interests, offers to buy or sell goods or services, apartment rentals, or offers to make loans or provide grant funding, among other schemes.
The conspirators sent pictures or provided other information to the victims to make their schemes appear genuine. When the conspirators used telephone calls, they used voice-over-internet-protocol numbers to make it appear as if the calls were originating within the United States near the victims. After developing the relationships, the conspirators asked for money for a variety of reasons related to the scheme.
After the victims agreed, the conspirators directed the victims to send the money to the defendants, who opened numerous bank accounts to receive the victims’ money.
On some occasions, the defendants received the victims’ money in post office boxes maintained under alias names or through payments made payable to “shell” businesses that the defendants, including Ijeoma Adeola, created to receive fraud proceeds.
The victims sent the money to the defendants through the mail, bank-to-bank transfers, or through peer-to-peer money transfer services like Zelle or PayPal. After the defendants received the money in their accounts, they transferred the money to each other, to the conspirators overseas, and to their own accounts in Nigeria.
Fatai Okunola used some of the fraud proceeds he received to assist others in purchasing automobiles in the United States and then exporting them to Nigeria. According to the indictment, the defendants received more than $2 million in their accounts from the scheme between 2017 and 2022.
All defendants will be sentenced on January 14, 2025. Fatai Okunola, Oluwaseyi Adeola, and Cory McDougal each face a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison for their roles in the conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and will be ordered to pay restitution to their victims.
Okunola additionally faces a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison for his money laundering conviction, up to five years in prison for his conviction related to making false statements on his naturalization application, and possible removal and deportation from the United States. Ijeoma Adeola faces a maximum sentence of up to three years in prison and will be ordered to pay restitution to her victims.
“HSI continues to ensure that fraudsters are held accountable for their crimes and today’s guilty plea is evidence of that,” said HSI Detroit acting special agent in charge Jared Murphey. “By working together at all levels of law enforcement, we can dismantle interstate and international fraud networks that prey on hard-working people across the country.”
“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is charged with safeguarding the nation’s mail system, and those who use it, from fraud and exploitation – a charge we take very seriously,” said USPIS inspector in charge Rodney Hopkins. “Particularly when it comes to our most vulnerable populations, we work tirelessly alongside our partners to prosecute such financial predators to the fullest extent of the law. I would like to thank HSI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan for their partnership and the great work on this case leading to today’s guilty pleas.”
