Nigerian to be Deported, Scammed Connecticut Educators out of their Tax Refunds

What the heck!  Another Nigerian fraudster, with another type of scam, caught in Cobb County, Georgia just like yesterday’s Nigerian crook.
Is the Marietta area the go-to-place for Nigerians to congregate while ripping off Americans?

I’ve always wondered how scammers were able to file large numbers of fraudulent tax returns in order to obtain refund checks from some unsuspecting middle class Americans, so I found a detailed press release about the Dept. of Justice’s sentencing of OLUKAYODE IBRAHIM LAWAL very useful.
Lawal was arrested last year, but was sentenced on Tuesday in Connecticut where he stole thousands of dollars from teachers and other employees at the Groton Public School District and attempted the same for employees at the Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden.
By the way, he came here on a visitor visa and overstayed the visa!
See how he did it!

From the US Dept. of Justice,

Nigerian National Involved in Phishing Scheme that Targeted Connecticut Schools is Sentenced

OLUKAYODE IBRAHIM LAWAL, 36, a citizen of Nigeria last residing in Smyrna, Georgia, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven to approximately 10 months of imprisonment, time already served, for his role in a scheme to obtain the personal identifying information of school employees in Connecticut and elsewhere.
According to court documents and statements made in court, special agents from the FBI’s cybercrime squad in New Haven and the IRS have been investigating “phishing” emails that were sent to various school districts in Connecticut in 2017.
In March 2017, an employee of the Groton Public Schools received an email that appeared to be sent by another Groton 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 1,300 Groton Public Schools employees.
After the W-2 information was emailed, approximately 100 suspicious Forms 1040 were filed electronically with the IRS in the names of victims of the Groton phishing scheme. The 100 tax returns claimed refunds totaling $491,737. Approximately three of the returns were processed, and $23,543 in fraudulently-obtained funds were electronically deposited into various bank accounts. The other returns were not processed because they were suspected of being fraudulent.
Lawal controlled or used certain email accounts involved in this phishing scheme. A co-conspirator of Lawal sent personal identifying information, including names and Social Security Numbers, of at least 10 employees to an email account that Lawal used. Lawal then sent the victims’ personal identifying information to another co-conspirator.
The investigation further revealed that in February 2017, in a related scheme, Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden was victimized by a phishing e-mail that requested W-2 forms for its employees. Approximately 103 employee W-2 forms were compromised as a result of the phishing e-mail. The IRS confirmed that 33 victims had fraudulent tax returns filed electronically with the IRS, claiming refunds in the amount of $314,184. The returns were not processed because they were suspected of being fraudulent.

He overstayed his visa!

Lawal entered the U.S. on a visitor’s visa on November 24, 2016, and failed to depart on his scheduled departure date of December 1, 2016. He has been detained since his arrest on May 9, 2018. On December 20, 2018, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

He will be deported!

Lawal, who is now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will be removed to Nigeria.

So will Lawal go home to Africa, get another ID and be back under another name?
You might want to read the story from Cobb County at the time of his arrest.
The number of stories in my Nigeria tag continues to grow! This story brings the number to six and Frauds and Crooks is only a couple of months old!

How come USCIS isn’t doing a better job of sorting out the creeps we are getting from Nigeria? Or, at least throwing them out when their visa expires?  This is an issue we need to hammer the Trump Administration about!