Nigerian Man Pleads Guilty to $415,874 Fraud Scheme

Akinpelumi Olawale Oyewusi, a 60-year-old Nigerian national residing in Hyattsville, Maryland, pleaded guilty in a United States federal court to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. This plea was announced by the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, Kelly O.

Hayes, on Thursday, as part of the Trump administration’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. Oyewusi's fraudulent activities occurred between September 2020 and March 2021, during which he and his co-conspirators defrauded state workforce authorities, including the Maryland Department of Labor, of unemployment insurance funds.

The scheme involved using the identities of real individuals to submit false claims, resulting in actual losses of at least $415,874.63, with Oyewusi personally obtaining at least $25,000. The conspirators accessed funds through bank-issued debit cards linked to fraudulent claims and withdrew money using ATM transactions.

Oyewusi tracked the fraudulent debit cards through incoming mail alerts from the US Postal Service, allowing him to maximize withdrawals from each card.