Nigerian National To Serve 37 Months For Conspiracy To Commit Bank Fraud

Olowaseun Adekoya, 29, a Nigerian National living in Sewaren, NJ, was sentenced in United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire to 37 months in prison, after being convicted by a jury of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud in New Hampshire, announced United States Attorney John P. Kacavas.

Between September 26, 2013 and October 2, 2013, Adekoya communicated on-line with an undercover agent who had taken over the identity of a criminal with whom Adekoya had previously done business. The undercover agent advised Adekoya that he could create counterfeit ATM cards which Adekoya could use to fraudulently obtain money from banks in New Hampshire. As a result of those discussions, on October 1, 2013 Adekoya sent four individuals from New Jersey to Manchester, New Hampshire to engage in what he thought would be a $960,000 ATM bank fraud. The undercover agent and Adekoya had agreed that Adekoya would come to Manchester, NH and bring four “soldiers” with him, and that all five of them would each take 40 counterfeit ATM cards and travel to ATMs in Manchester, under cover of darkness, and fraudulently withdraw almost a million dollars.

Late on the evening of October 1, 2013 Adekoya’s four co-conspirators flew to New Hampshire and went to an agreed upon location where they picked up what they thought were 200 counterfeit ATM cards. In the early morning hours of October 2, 2013, the four then proceeded to ATM machines, where they were arrested. Mr. Adekoya, having not flown to New Hampshire with his confederates, was arrested at his home in Sewaren, NJ. The four co-conspirators, Darrell Harris, Adebayo Adegbesan, Kamau Brown and Aubrie Banks, all pled guilty before trial and two of them testified against Adekoya.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service with assistance from the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold H. Huftalen.