The sentence was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner and Special Agent in Charge Jennifer C. Boone of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner stated, “I hope that this sentence serves as a deterrent to those who, like Ojedokun and his co-conspirators, take advantage of vulnerable and elderly victims across the United States, defrauding them through lies and laundering the funds internationally.  These heartless fraudsters left their victims heartbroken, embarrassed, and financially devastated.  Bringing to justice fraudsters who prey upon the elderly is one of the highest priorities of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners. We will continue our outreach efforts to make the public aware of scams and frauds targeting elderly victims.  I encourage anyone who believes they or someone they know who may be a victim to contact the Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-FRAUD-11 (833-372-8311).”

According to the evidence presented at his six-day trial, between 2013 and March 2015, Ojedokun conspired with Gbenga Benson Ogundele, Mukhtar Danjuma Haruna, a/k/a “Mukky,” and others to use money deposited into bank accounts by fraud victims to engage in financial transactions in order to promote the fraud scheme and conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, and control of the fraud proceeds. Ojedokun was in Nigeria when he was committing these crimes.  Law enforcement was able to arrest him when he came to the United States to attend school here.

According to evidence presented at trial, members of the conspiracy searched online dating websites to initiate romantic relationships with vulnerable men and women.  They phoned, e-mailed, texted and used Internet chat messenger services to form romantic relationships with the victims, who lived throughout the United States.

Specifically, witnesses testified that members of the conspiracy used false stories and promises to convince the many victims to provide money to the conspirators, including fake hospital bills, plane trips to visit the victims, problems with overseas businesses, and foreign taxes.  Ogundele and other conspirators opened bank accounts, called “drop accounts,” in order to receive millions of dollars from the victims.  Testimony at trial showed that victims provided money to the conspirators as a result of the false stories and promises, either depositing money directly into drop accounts controlled by the conspirators, or by checks sent to the conspirators.  The loss to the eight victims who testified at trial was well over $1 million and the overall total loss was substantially higher.

In addition, the evidence at trial showed that the conspirators engaged in other types of fraud, including a fraudulent employment scamEmployment Scam Bogus job postings, recruitment emails and online ads - often illegally using legitimate company names – are all tools scammers use to defraud people seeking employment. Always be suspicious of quick offers with high salaries or pre-payment requests for coaching, training or certifications, and never share personal information until you're certain a job posting is legitimate. Many employment scams also offer advanced payment for supplies. These checks will often bounce, costing you money. in which the victim was led to believe she had been hired by a company, and was instructed to deposit the proceeds of a fraudulent check into a drop account controlled by the conspirators.

According to the evidence, Ojedokun, Ogundele, Haruna, and their co-conspirators laundered money received from the fraud victims by buying used cars and shipping them to Nigeria, among other methods.  As part of the fraud schemes, Ojedokun and his co-conspirators transmitted and used images of financial transactions, including bank deposit receipts and wire transfer forms, as proof that a deposit of fraud money had been made by a victim.

Ogundele, age 61, formerly of Laurel, Maryland, was convicted in 2016 after a 17-day trial, of conspiracies to commit money laundering and wire fraud, as well as aggravated identity theftIdentity Theft Identity theft is when someone uses another person's personal identifying information, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. In both the U.K. and the United States it is the theft of personally identifiable information. Identity theft deliberately uses someone else's identity as a method to gain financial advantages or obtain credit and other benefits, and perhaps to cause other person's loss. The person whose identity has been stolen may suffer adverse consequences, especially if they are falsely held responsible for the perpetrator's actions. Personally identifiable information generally includes a person's name, date of birth, social security number, driver's license number, bank account or credit card numbers, PINs, electronic signatures, fingerprints, passwords, or any other information that can be used to access a person's financial resources., and was sentenced to 234 months in federal prison.  Haruna, age 46, of Nigeria, remains a fugitive and charges against him are still pending.  In addition to Ogundele, eight other defendants were convicted for their roles in the fraud scheme and were sentenced to between a year and a day and 234 months in federal prison.

Acting United States Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner commended the FBIFBI FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. A leading U.S. counter-terrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes, including financial fraud. for its work in the investigation.  Mr.  Lenzner thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas P. Windom, who prosecuted the case.