CHICAGO — Akeem Kosoko and his postal carrier brother had allegedly been stealing people’s personal funds from the U.S. mail for months when the federal government rolled out what undoubtedly seemed like the ultimate bonanza: “Trump checks.”

That’s how Kosoko referred to the federal “economic impact payments” — emblazoned with President Donald Trump’s name — that were mailed to financially struggling taxpayers during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to criminal charges recently unsealed in Chicago’s federal court.

In early May, the FBI was listening as Kosoko allegedly arranged a meeting on Chicago’s West Side to sell several stimulus checks to an associate for $5,000.

“You get them Trump licks?” the associate, who was cooperating with the investigation, asked Kosoko in the May 7 call, according to the charges.

“You know it, boy!” Kosoko replied.

The exchange was one of several detailed in a 43-page criminal complaint charging Kosoko, 26, and his brother, Ahmed Kosoko, 35, with conspiring to steal U.S. mail and theft of government funds.

According to the charges, Ahmed Kosoko, who had been a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier since 2018, and other uncharged postal employees agreed to steal tax refunds, stimulus checks and other financial instruments from the mail in exchange for cash “and other items of value.”

Akeem Kosoko also possessed a mail carrier uniform and a special postal service “arrow key” to rifle through mailboxes on his own, which he referred to as “going fishing,” the charges alleged.

To disguise the fraud, the brothers recruited third parties from across the country to use their bank accounts to deposit the funds, and also used stolen personal identification numbers and other banking information of unwitting victims to withdraw the money from ATMs, the charges alleged.

Prosecutors said told a federal judge in Chicago on Thursday that investigators were still trying to unravel the scope of the fraud, which involved financial transactions in Illinois, New York and Georgia.

“The scheme is so expansive, there are dozens, if not more, co-conspirators,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Nicholson said, adding that the total amount stolen appeared to be “upward of a million dollars.”

Records show FBI agents arrested Ahmed Kosoko in September while he was delivering mail on his usual route in north suburban Skokie. Akeem Kosoko, who was on the phone with his brother at the time of the arrest, told agents that he would turn himself in later that day but he never showed up.

Authorities spent more than a month looking for him before he arranged through his attorney to turn himself in to the U.S. Marshals Service last week, records show.

During a lengthy hearing Thursday, Akeem Kosoko’s attorney, Lisa Lopez, called her client a “man of modest means” who lives with his father in a small apartment in the 1100 block of North Milwaukee Avenue and works at his family’s clothing store.

Nicholson, however, said Kosoko appears to have no permanent residence and there was no evidence that Kosoko has ever had legitimate income.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered Kosoko held without bond, citing arrest warrants issued for him in two separate cases in Georgia as well as pending weapons charges against him in Cook County.

Cummings also said it was particularly “troubling” that Kosoko was charged with stealing checks meant to help financially strapped citizens during a global pandemic.

“That’s quite serious if that’s actually proven,” the judge said.

Ahmed Kosoko, 35, of Chicago, was released on his own recognizance by a different magistrate judge after his arrest in September, records show. His attorney, William Stanton, declined to comment Friday on the allegations.

According to the criminal complaint, the FBI was first alerted to the scheme in October 2019 when a confidential informant told agents that Akeem Kosoko had offered to sell him stolen checks and was recruiting others on Facebook and Instagram by touting “fast cash.”

Three months later, as the federal investigation progressed, Chicago police confiscated Akeem Kosoko’s cellphone after he was arrested during a traffic stop in the 1500 block of South Ridgeway Avenue, records show.

According to the arrest report, Kosoko, who was a passenger in a Jeep Grand Cherokee that ran a stop sign, had an unregistered, loaded handgun in his waistband. He told officers that the gun belonged to his brother and that he was carrying it for protection, according to the report.

Akeem Kosoko was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and was released on $5,000 bond, records show. Those charges are pending in Cook County Criminal Court.

In May, federal prosecutors secured a search warrant for Kosoko’s phone, which was still in the possession of the Chicago Police Department, according to testimony Thursday by FBI Special Agent Lindsay Burt.

On the device, investigators found a trove of text messages and social media chats discussing the mail theft scheme, including photos of stolen items and conversations between the Kosoko brothers about the amounts of certain checks, Burt said.

One photo found on the phone showed Ahmed Kosovo in April 2019 prying open an envelope he’d stolen while on his route, exposing a tax refund check addressed to a Skokie woman for $363, according to the charges.

“Weak (as expletive),” Ahmed texted to his brother in an apparent reference to the small amount of the check, according to the complaint. “Not really even worth taking.”

Shortly after searching Akeem Kosoko’s phone, the FBI instructed the confidential informant to arrange to purchase stolen pandemic stimulus checks from Kosoko, the complaint alleged.

The first meeting took place May 8 in the 2100 block of West Randolph Street. Agents watched as the informant, who was wearing a hidden camera and microphone, handed over $5,000 in exchange for a check intended for a man on the city’s Far South Side, the complaint alleged.

A few days later, the informant called Kosoko to ask when he’d be getting more Trump checks, the charges alleged. “Not today … tomorrow,” Kosoko allegedly replied.

On May 14, the two met again on the same block, where the informant paid Kosoko $6,000 for two more stimulus checks, which had been altered to change the names of the payees, the complaint alleged.

During that meeting, Kosoko allegedly explained to the informant how his network of postal carriers was able to steal the checks without being detected by supervisors.

“When they get someone else’s route bro, like they go do 10 blocks and that route don’t belong to them, they just pocket that (expletive). They can’t get in trouble,” Kosoko was quoted in the complaint as saying.

During the same conversation, the informant asked why Kosoko’s brother hadn’t been able to steal more.

“He ain’t been workin’ like that,” Kosoko allegedly replied. “He caught the coronavirus.”

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https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-mail-theft-federal-charges-coronavirus-stimulus-checks-20201106-7t4zrrw66fanja2lfj3hhdbpxa-story.html

(The Chicago Tribune’s Megan Crepeau contributed to this report.)

They are in for 21years. No be naija wea be 6months

When I read the headline, I instantly knew it must be Nigerians. But i was expecting to see names like Okechukwu, Ifeanyi, Emeka.

Is like the westerners from Ekiti, and Abulegba have taking over from the eastern developers in doing this strong thing

As soon as I saw their names, I wondered if they were Nigerians. Then I looked up their names and that confirmed my suspicion. Meanwhile read of another incident in Zambia by a Nigerian. http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/accounts-hackers-cornered/?fbclid=IwAR3jSHPqbWcalDv5wde2YMSY23z_yX9Lc_yvqFBg9TxT0HiucSyqdhQEIYc