Nigerian-American Sentenced for Alaska Dividend Fraud

Adepoju Salako, a 33-year-old Nigerian-American, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for committing dividend fraud against Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend program. Salako pleaded guilty to seven counts of wire fraud in a federal court in Anchorage, Alaska.

Between January and February 2022, he obtained personal identification information from legitimate Alaska residents and submitted seven separate applications to the Alaska Department of Revenue, redirecting their Permanent Fund Dividend payments to a bank account he controlled. Salako accessed the residents' MyAlaska online accounts, changed email addresses linked to those accounts, and used a virtual private network to mask his location, making six of the seven applications appear to originate from an Alaska-based internet address.

The seventh application was submitted using a Philadelphia IP address. The fraud was detected, and all seven applications were denied.

Salako attempted to collect $22,988 in dividends. His sentence will run concurrently with a separate six-and-a-half-year federal prison term related to COVID-19 relief fund fraud and money laundering, along with an order to pay $2.5 million in restitution.