“Never let a good crisis go to waste.” No better words have been said by Zachery Myers when describing the mindset of fraudsters during the pandemic. He would know, being the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana and for the prosecutor in the case of Temitope Adeboye. On December 29, 2023, Adeboye was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to Wire Fraud, Aggravated Identity Theft, and other false identity documents offenses.
But Adeboye says he doesn’t know when he began his fraudulent scheme. Let’s assume March 25, 2020, when Congress passed the $2 trillion CARES Act which instituted too few restrictions on applicants. Adeboye concocted a scheme where he fraudulently filed and received unemployment benefits from the State of Nevada using the names of identity theft victims. These individuals had not applied for unemployment benefits before Adeboye’s scheme. And in some instances, the victims learned that someone has already applied using their identity information, when they themselves applied for benefits. Adeboye had obtained fake ID’s in the names of the identity theft victims to support his claim’s and to support his spending of the funds. Which he used when he purchased a brand new Lexus.
Adeboye may know when he started frauding, but he does know when it ended. On August 6, 2023, Adeboye was arrested by police officers for driving with a suspended driver’s license. At the time of his arrest, police discovered in Adeboye’s possession approximately 32 fake driver’s licenses from Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and ninety-six unemployment debit cards. The unemployment debit cards recovered from Adeboye were used in over 5,000 transactions at various retailers and financial institutions.
Great job Zachery Myers putting this fraudster behind bars.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Indianapolis man sentenced after stealing thousands in COVID-19 unemployment benefits” published by Fox News on December 30, 2023
INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis man was recently sentenced to prison after he pleaded guilty to stealing more than $800,000 in COVID-19 pandemic unemployment benefits. According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana, 32-year-old Temitope Adeboye was sentenced to 57 months, or a little more than 4.5 years, in prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and other offenses.
After Adeboye’s prison sentence, he will serve three years probation and will be required to pay $804,460.54 in restitution.
