Nigerian, Daniel Adekunle Ojo, who had spent less than 14 months in the United States, has been arrested in Durham, North Carolina and charged with fraud and identity theft offences

The offences stemmed from Ojo’s phishing scheme, using an AOL and GMail email accounts that targeted school districts in Connecticut and Minnesota in an effort to get employees’ personal information and file bogus tax returns.

His arrest was announced Friday by Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Patricia M. Ferrick, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Joel P. Garland, Special Agent in Charge of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation in New England

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.







Prosecutors said a school district employee in Glastonbury, Connecticut, received an email in February that appeared to be sent by another employee, who asked for tax information for 1,600 school district workers. The worker who received the email then forwarded the information, which was used in the scheme to file 122 bogus tax returns seeking nearly $600,000 in refunds, authorities said.

Officials said the Internal Revenue Service processed about six of the fake returns and electronically deposited nearly $37,000 in refunds to various bank accounts.



Investigators linked the email sent to the employee to Ojo, prosecutors said.

Officials also believe Ojo was involved in similar email schemes targeting school districts in Groton, Connecticut, and Bloomington, Minnesota.





In March, a Groton school employee emailed tax information of 1,300 employees in response to an email that appeared to be from the superintendent of schools. Authorities said the information was used to file about 66 fraudulent tax returns seeking about $364,000 in refunds. Officials said the fake returns weren’t processed because they had been flagged as being part of an identity theft scheme after school employees discovered the problem.

Prosecutors also said they linked the email account used by Ojo to a similar scam that obtained tax information for about 2,800 school employees in Bloomington earlier this year.

Eric Placke, a federal public defender in North Carolina who represented Ojo only for his initial court appearance, declined to comment Friday. It’s not clear who Ojo’s attorney will be in Connecticut.

Authorities said Ojo entered the U.S. in May 2016 on a visitor’s visa and failed to leave on his scheduled departure date in June 2016.





Daly urged the public to double-check links and email addresses before clicking on and responding to them, to avoid becoming an identity theft victim.

Original Press Release issued by US Department of Justice

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The usual suspects!

Sophisticated miners. When the are not mining they are stealing.

Hate filled bigots with no shame...

NCAN over to u.

Just 14 months in another country and he has shown his criminal tendencies

Afonja and fraud

Na them afonjas.. Fraudulent people

soft work

just 14 months in US ? even FBI know say Afonjas are scammers


what will happen if he stays 2 years

afonja are naturally criminals including their yahoo yahoo obas

Very foolish somebody. Even for the fact that he hide himself after his visa has expired, he couldn't go into something more legitimate that may earn him citizenship. Some people are just disgrace to their Nation and family.

I hereby call all afonja to try harder so as to move higher in the scheme of fraud.
Yes we are getting there we will soon dethrone the Igbos from the yeast.

Obijulius:
The usual suspects!

Sophisticated miners. When the are not mining they are stealing.

Hate filled bigots with no shame...

NCAN over to u.

Your comment is irrelevant...

Alagbada1:


Your comment is irrelevant...

Shatap yahoo yahoo filled tribe

Ojo why na? Na greed wan kill you so. Long throat!

Omo Ale jatijati nii

Obijulius:
The usual suspects!

Sophisticated miners. When the are not mining they are stealing.

Hate filled bigots with no shame...

NCAN over to u.

Look whose talking , una no dey use months before dem sabi una, the drug pushing generation, armed Robbers, one of your people was praised last month for scamming Brazilian Bank to the tune of ~$300M


So please let's hear word
. Hypocrites

Redoil:
I hereby call all afonja to try harder so as to move higher in the scheme of fraud.
Yes we are getting there we will soon dethrone the Igbos from the yeast.

justineu:
Na them afonjas.. Fraudulent people