Published 9th Sep, 2022

By Tola Owoyele

Sulaiman Dosunmu, a Nigerian living in Darby, Pennsylvania, United States of America, has admitted his role in a four-year-long bank fraud conspiracy that targeted 12 different financial institutions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

According to the information made available on the website of the US Department of Justice, Dosunmu, 41, was part of a Nigerian-based crime syndicate that engaged in a massive fraud operation in many states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, between 2016 and 2020.

Dosunmu and other members of the syndicate obtained stolen cheques belonging to US citizens, changed the payee names to fraudulent names and deposited them into bank accounts that had been opened with forged foreign passports.

The passports also carried fraudulent US visas that matched the names on the stolen cheques. Once the banks credited the amounts on the cheques to their preferred accounts, members of the group withdrew the funds from ATMs or purchased money orders, using debit cards associated with the fraudulent accounts.

The organisation used over 400 fraudulent accounts opened with fake identity documents to defraud the victim banks of over $7 million.

Dosunmu admitted using several false identities to open the fraudulent bank accounts, making numerous deposits of stolen cheques into the accounts and withdrawing funds from the accounts.

The bank fraud conspiracy charge carries a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million. Sentencing is scheduled for January 13, 2023.

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