FBI arrests Nigerian Adekunle Ojo for identity theft

scam

Daniel Adekunle Ojo,, 33, a citizen of Nigeria residing in Durham, N.C., was arrested yesterday on a federal criminal complaint charging him with fraud and identity theft offenses stemming from a scheme to obtain the personal identifying information of school employees in Connecticut and elsewhere.


Following his arrest at his Durham residence, OJO appeared before a U.S. magistrate judge in Greensboro, N.C., and was ordered detained pending his transfer to the District of Connecticut.


As alleged in the criminal complaint, in February 2017, an employee of the Glastonbury Public Schools received an email that appeared to be sent by another Glastonbury school system employee. The email contained a request to send W-2 tax information for all employees of the school system. The recipient of the email responded by sending copies of the W-2 information for approximately 1,600 Glastonbury Public Schools employees.

After the W-2 information was emailed, approximately 122 suspicious Forms 1040 were filed electronically with the IRS in the names of victims of the Glastonbury phishing scheme. The 122 tax returns claimed tax refunds totaling $596,897. Approximately six of the returns were processed, and $36,926 in fraudulently-obtained funds were electronically deposited into various bank accounts.

The complaint alleges that OJO controlled or used an aol.com email account and a gmail.com email account involved in this phishing scheme, and that he participated in the scheme to obtain the Glastonbury school system employees’ personal identifying information and use it for personal gain.

This ongoing investigation also includes phishing incidents that victimized the Groton Public Schools, and the Bloomington Independent School District in Bloomington, Minnesota.

The complaint alleges that OJO entered the U.S. on a visitor’s visa in May 23, 2016, and failed to depart on his scheduled departure date of June 8, 2016.