They really aren’t Maryland men, but likely Nigerians based on their names and the fact that one of the men involved in the scheme purchased cars and shipped them to Nigeria (on your dime)! (Secret decoder ring at work!)
I searched for photos of the accused, but as usual their pictures are no where to be found. (If you find the alleged scammers’ mugshots, please send my way!). Here is the storythat appeared in the Washington Post, but was picked up all over the country. The Nigerian tip-off comes near the end. (Hat tip: TwoLaine)
Prosecutors: Group swindled $8M designated for hurricane and wildfire victims
In Maryland – far from where the California wildfires and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria struck – a group of residents managed to scam the federal government out of $8 million in relief funds designated for those who needed it most, according to prosecutors. Money meant for California wildfire victims ended up in the hands of African scammers! The money was supposed to be for those who needed to rebuild their lives.
In the wake of massive hurricanes and wildfires that pummeled the United States in recent years, the federal government made relief funds available for those who found themselves uprooted amid the rubble of charred or washed-out homes. But in Maryland – far from where the California wildfires and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria struck – a group of residents managed to scam the federal government out of $8 million in relief funds designated for those who needed it most, according to prosecutors. Members of the group, prosecutors allege, were part of a scheme that stole the identity of disaster victims and applied for victim benefits – to pay their own rents, buy cars or make personal purchases.
[….] John Irogho, 38, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to federal prosecutors. Odinaka Ekeocha, 33, of Laurel, Maryland, has been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. Their arrests come a few weeks after another Maryland man, Tare Stanley Okirika, 30, of Laurel, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, admitting that he fraudulently obtained government benefits to pay his rent and for other expenses, according to court documents. To better understand how the scam worked. See the Justice Department Press Release here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/two-maryland-men-facing-federal-indictment-their-roles-scheme-allegedly-stole-government
[….]
The scheme relied heavily on “Green Dot” prepaid cards, according to prosecutors and court records. Those eligible for emergency benefits from the Federal Emergency Management Agency could opt to claim the funding through the cards that can be purchased at local grocery or convenience stores and registered to receive cash, court documents state.
Between 2016 and 2018, the group filed false claims for disaster relief and purchased hundreds of Green Dot cards to claim the money using the stolen identities of victims impacted by various disasters around the country, the government said. The documents do not detail how the stolen identities were obtained.
At least 16 victims from California, Georgia, Florida and Texas were listed in Okirika’s case, according to his indictment. Investigators with the U.S. Secret Service said he used some of the fraudulently obtained money to buy cars and ship them to Nigeria.
More here.
Of course none of these media accounts (or the Justice Department press release!) identify the alleged fraudsters as Nigerians or mention their immigration status.
How did these creeps get in here in the first place?
And, is this what the New American Economy claims is the entrepreneurial spirit migrants bring to America?
Of course you would only know that if you were following Utah media reports on the case. The national media has long since moved on after an initial little flurry of coverage back in June and early July.
Once the mainstream media figured out that this was not a story they wanted to help spread—African man, here illegally, slaughters beautiful white girl—because it doesn’t fit the narrative of immigrants as people just like us looking for a better life, the veil on the case has dropped. My previous posts on the horrible murder are here: https://fraudscrookscriminals.com/?s=Ajayi
Except in Utah where bits of news come out every few days. Stories like this one:
New witness: MacKenzie Lueck murder suspect wanted to carry out ‘disturbing’ project
Before I get to the story, let me say again that because of the Leftwing media mob’s on-going efforts to keep quiet about news that doesn’t fit their political agenda we have a whole generation of young people who are not sufficiently wary about monsters likeAyoola Ajayi.
Is no one warning their daughters and granddaughters to be more careful about who they meet up with through social media? Are all the Progressive parents too fearful of looking like ‘racists’ to their own kids?
One of the things that struck me on reading this latest report from Utah is how dumb the alleged killer is.
We heard he was some savvy IT guy who was building an image of himself as a person of quality.
Sheesh, he was dumb.
Didn’t he know that his phone would ultimately be his undoing as the police used its location to move in quickly?
Of course not quickly enough to save Mackenzie who apparently foolishly never let anyone know where she was going at 3 a.m.
Anyway….
Here is the news from Fox13 in Salt Lake City:
SALT LAKE CITY — New details are unfolding in the investigation into the murder of University of Utah student MacKenzie Lueck, and a witness is now describing why he’s troubled by what he said suspect Ayoola Ajayi asked him to do in the days after Lueck disappeared. Ajayi allegedly tried to burn Lueck’s body in the backyard of this house. Don’t miss what a housekeeper told the media. https://www.insideedition.com/alleged-mackenzie-lueck-killer-was-ted-bundy-says-former-house-cleaner-54104
That man said Ajayi reached out to him for a backyard landscaping project. That proposed project has now turned into evidence for detectives.
Landon Fullmer owns 360 Landscapes. He’s taken on quite a few projects for the busy summer season.
Though, when he thinks about this summer, there’s one project, in particular, he’ll always remember — even though he never actually took it on. He said a man named Ayoola Ajayi contacted Fullmer through Angie’s List on Monday, June 24. That was one week after Lueck disappeared, and days after her family reported her missing. Apparently, Ajayi wanted the land in his backyard leveled. That’s all he indicated on his request, Fullmer said.
“We had a phone conversation,” Fullmer explained. “I asked him to be a little bit more specific in what he was looking for. He said his backyard needed to be leveled or graded, maybe some soil and some sod brought in.”
Continue reading here.
Fullmer never did meet up with Ajayi to discuss the project because on the day they were scheduled to talk, the police had swooped in on Ajayi and were focusing on the back yard.
Just like the case of alleged serial killer Billy Chemirmir in Texas, I’m staying on it because it does have lessons to teach. Of course, lessons the PC media doesn’t want to give you! So what do you do?
Make sure this story doesn’t die! Send it around through social media and consider that by doing so you might actually save the life of some naive young woman (or man) who is living in diversity-is-beautiful la-la land!
Well, check this out!
Authorities maintained from day one (if they mentioned it at all) that Ayoola Ajayi was a US citizen. (See my previous posts here.)
Now, we are told many paragraphs into a story with this headline that his immigration status is unclear!
Ayoola Ajayi, suspect in MacKenzie Lueck’s murder, expunged his Utah theft case, clearing his record
Of course it is too late for poor Mackenzie, but is this one more dreadful crime that could have been prevented had he been thrown out of the country years ago?
From The Salt Lake Tribune,
The 2012 report from Utah State University says police there wanted Ayoola Ajayi charged with a class B misdemeanor for stealing an iPad.
What happened after that has been a mystery in the three weeks since he was accused of kidnapping and killing MacKenzie Lueck in Salt Lake City, when reporters and investigators tried to reconstruct his background. Utah’s court database has no listing of charges being filed.
A piece of the puzzle was solved Wednesday. An employee who answered the phone at the Cache County jail confirmed its records on Ajayi had been expunged.
[….]
….people convicted of crimes have more incentive to seek an expungement. Convictions, even for a misdemeanor offense like Ajayi was suspected of, can prevent people from gaining jobs, loans, serving in the military and obtaining concealed firearm permits.
People who knew Ajayi have said he carefully built an image of an educated professional. An expunged conviction would allowed Ajayi to say “the arrest or conviction did not happen,” according to the Utah State Courts. It also would have prevented the public, including Lueck, from finding any conviction in a public records search.
Many paragraphs in….
Ajayi is from Nigeria. The Salt Lake County Attorney’s Office has said he is a legal resident of the United States, though no one has specified his exact immigration status.
[….]
There are mixed opinion on whether expunging a conviction would have helped Ajayi in any immigration or naturalization proceeding. Some legal guides say theft can be considered a crime of moral turpitude for which someone can be denied permanent residency.
[….]
July 22, 2012, campus police investigated the theft of an iPad, according to reports provided by the campus. The next day, USU technology staff found that someone was using the tablet to access the internet. Police found Ajayi using the iPad in the iconic academic building known as Old Main, a report says. An officer searched the iPad’s web history and found that, though Ajayi was married, he accessed dating sites, listed himself as single and was pursuing “a female as a prospect to marry to keep from being deported.”
How many more of these sickening stories are out there? How many more vulnerable women are being abused or murdered in their assisted living and nursing homes, places where family members assume they are being well-cared-for?
Once again, the creep’s name makes me wonder if he is a ‘new American.’ And, once again, I searched everywhere for a photo of 29-year-old Nshimiyiana O. Hamzat, but found none.
I did learn that Hamzat is a Nigerian name, and of course he could be born and bred right here, but somehow I doubt it. Continue reading “Nursing Assistant Arrested for Raping Disabled Woman in Care Facility”→
In a new twist to a gruesome case, it was announced earlier today that the body of slain Utah coed Mackenzie Lueck was found 85 miles away from the yard belonging to Nigerian Ayoola Ajayi where earlier police said human tissue had been found.
See my previous stories on the case here.
The story at CBS(and elsewhere) is pretty thin so far, but here is the gist of the news.
Body of slain Utah State student Mackenzie Lueck recovered
The body of a slain college student has been recovered in a canyon about 85 miles away from a backyard in Salt Lake City where other remains were found last week, Utah police said Friday. The disclosure came at a news conference in the case involving 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck. Authorities previously said some of her charred remains and personal belongings were found in the backyard of the suspect, Ayoola Ajayi, in Salt Lake City. The body was discovered Wednesday in Logan Canyon.
Lueck disappeared June 17, after she returned from a trip to her hometown of El Segundo, California, for her grandmother’s funeral and took a Lyft from the airport to a park where she met someone.
Police say the last person she communicated with was 31-year-old Ayoola Ajayi, who was also in the park. He’s being held on suspicion of aggravated murder, kidnapping and other crimes.No attorney has been listed for him. Charges have not been filed.District Attorney Sim Gill told CBS affiliate KUTV that his office is screening charges for Ajayi.
Police have not discussed a motive for the killing or how Lueck died. It isn’t clear how Ajayi and Lueck knew each other.
Lueck was missing for nearly two weeks before Ajayi was arrested.
CBSactually mentions Ajayi’s roots in Nigeria (in the last paragraph!).
