Maryland Man Sentenced to Over Seven Years in Federal Prison for Covid-19, Unemployment, Insurance, and Aggravated Identity Theft Schemes

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Decide Stephanie A. Gallagher sentenced Idowu Raji, age 40, of Baltimore County, Maryland, to 94 months in federal jail, adopted by two years of supervised launch, for conspiracy to commit entry machine fraud, entry machine fraud, and aggravated id theft in relation to a number of monetary schemes.  The Courtroom additionally ordered Raji to pay $1,793,472 in restitution.

The sentence was introduced by United States Legal professional for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Performing Particular Agent in Cost Selwyn Smith of Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; Performing Particular Agent in Cost Mark Lewis of the U.S. Division of State, Diplomatic Safety Service (DSS), Washington Area Workplace; Performing Particular Agent in Cost Troy Springer, of the Washington Regional Workplace, U.S. Division of Labor – Workplace of Inspector Basic; and Postal Inspector in Cost Greg L. Torbenson of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service– Washington Division.

In response to his responsible plea, in 2020, Raji conspired with a number of different people to defraud, use, and site visitors in unauthorized entry units and procure greater than $900,000 in unemployment insurance coverage and different COVID-19 associated advantages.  Furthermore, from October 2018 to November 2020, Raji conspired with a number of people, together with Adewumi Abioye, age 35, of Randallstown, Maryland and Lukman Salam, age 37, of Delaware, to defraud a number of companies, people, and monetary establishments to illegally receive greater than $750,000. 

In furtherance of the entry machine conspiracy, Raji admitted arranging for the supply of fraudulent unemployment insurance coverage playing cards to his co-conspirators, offering directions on using the playing cards, and acquiring a portion of the fraudulently obtained proceeds.  In complete, Raji admitted that he was concerned in fraudulent unemployment claims that used the identities of greater than 50 actual individuals and precipitated greater than $900,000 in losses to state and the federal governments. 

Raji admitted utilizing an encrypted textual content messaging utility to hold out his crimes, together with to coordinate using unemployment insurance coverage and COVID-19 associated advantages, receive and switch the non-public figuring out info of actual people, and obtain unemployment debit playing cards that had been mailed to addresses in Maryland and loaded with fraudulently obtained advantages.  Raji additionally directed using the fraudulently obtained debit playing cards to have interaction in level of sale and ATM transactions.  He additionally used the state and federal authorities funds meant for catastrophe reduction for his personal profit.

As a part of his wire fraud conspiracy, co-conspirators Salam and Abioye used pretend identification paperwork to open financial institution accounts, which Raji then coordinated using the accounts to obtain fraud proceeds.  For instance, in November 2019, Salam opened a checking account at a monetary establishment utilizing a pretend passport with the alias “Chris Hobert.”  In December 2019, the e-mail account of a supervisor at a sufferer enterprise was hacked, and an e mail was despatched to the sufferer enterprise that fraudulently claimed that one other enterprise had modified its cost directions.  Consequently, the sufferer enterprise despatched a $33,200 wire to a fraudulent account opened by Salam.  Raji labored together with his co-conspirators to maneuver the funds to a different account registered below the alias “Michael Stone,” and to finally acquire entry to the fraud proceeds.

Additional, in July 2020, Raji fraudulently utilized for a $31,200 Paycheck Safety Program mortgage on behalf of a enterprise, Yours Actually LLC.  Raji claimed that his enterprise had greater than $132,000 of gross income within the prior 12 months when, actually, it didn’t.  Furthermore, Raji didn’t spend the proceeds of the mortgage on worker salaries and different applicable bills required by the PPP mortgage.

As said in his plea settlement, when Raji was arrested by federal brokers in November 2020, he made a number of false statements to brokers, together with that he had by no means been concerned in enterprise e mail compromise schemes, wire fraud, or unemployment insurance coverage fraud.  Raji additionally falsely claimed that he by no means used Yours Actually LLC when he had obtained federal loans by way of the entity lower than six months earlier than the interview.

In April and Might 2022 co-defendants Abioye and Salam had been sentenced to 27 months and 30 months in federal jail; respectively for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.  Hameed Adesokan, Olatunde Vincent, Akolade Ojo, and Damilola Lawal will likely be sentenced later this 12 months in associated circumstances. 

On Might 17, 2021, the Legal professional Basic established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Job Power to marshal the sources of the Division of Justice in partnership with companies throughout authorities to boost efforts to fight and forestall pandemic-related fraud.  The Job Power bolsters efforts to research and prosecute probably the most culpable home and worldwide prison actors and assists companies tasked with administering reduction applications to stop fraud by, amongst different strategies, augmenting and incorporating present coordination mechanisms, figuring out sources and methods to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing info and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts.  For extra info on the Division’s response to the pandemic, please go to www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anybody with details about allegations of tried fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Division of Justice’s Nationwide Middle for Catastrophe Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or through the NCDF Internet Criticism Kind at: www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) Fraud Job Power was established to serve the American public by selling transparency and facilitating coordinated oversight of the federal authorities’s COVID-19 pandemic response.  The PRAC Fraud Job Power brings collectively brokers from its 22 member Inspectors Basic to research fraud involving quite a lot of applications, together with the Paycheck Safety Program.  Job power brokers who’re detailed to the PRAC obtain expanded authority to research pandemic fraud in addition to instruments and coaching to help their investigations.

United States Legal professional Erek L. Barron recommended HSI, DSS, the U.S. Division of Labor-OIG, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for his or her work within the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Legal professional Harry M. Gruber, who prosecuted the case.

For extra info on the Maryland U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, its priorities, and sources obtainable to assist the neighborhood, please go to www.justice.gov/usao-md.

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