GREENBELT, Md. (WUSA)- Okechukwo Otuya, a/k/a "Oke"and "Waffi," 31, of Laurel, Maryland, was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, two counts of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was also ordered to pay restitution to Bank of America, with the exact amount to be determined at a later hearing.
According to evidence presented at the four day trial, in the fall of 2007 Otuya; Oluwadamilola Feyisetan, a/k/a Dami (Dami); Adeniyi Adebiyi, a/k/a Niyi (Niyi); Alexander Diya and others devised a scheme to defraud Bank of America by depositing stolen credit card convenience checks into legitimate Bank of America accounts and withdrawing the money before the bank learned that the checks were not authorized.
Otuya and Dami were among the leaders in the scheme. Otuya, Dami and Niyi obtained the convenience checks by stealing them from homeowners' mailboxes in neighborhoods in Montgomery, Howard and Prince George's Counties. Otuya and others recruited college students to permit the use of the students' bank account (the "compromised accounts") to deposit stolen credit card convenience checks and make cash withdrawals from the account after the checks cleared. Otuya and others also recruited bank employees to provide account information for "high end" bank customers, including the account name and numbers, customer's signature cards or previously negotiated checks with appropriate signatures, and the customer's address. That information was used to create fraudulent checks for those accounts.
In the Spring of 2008, Otuya became the supplier of the stolen checks used to make the deposits into the compromised accounts, as well as the primary supplier of the student account
information. Otuya provided other accomplices with account information from the compromised accounts, debit cards and PINs to withdraw money from the compromised accounts. Otuya sometimes accompanied the accomplices by car to the different bank branches throughout Prince George's County and Howard County where money was fraudulently withdrawn.
On two occasions in October 2008, Otuya was captured on ATM video surveillance cameras depositing unauthorized convenience checks into compromised bank accounts. Otuya was arrested on October 20, 2010. Unauthorized or stolen debit cards, identification cards and checks were found in a back pack he was carrying, along with bank printouts of a compromised account and a laptop computer that contained credit reports in the names of other people. A former bank employee, Malia Forrester, had previously sold the bank printouts to a co-conspirator.
The total amount of fraudulent deposits made by the conspirators from over 50 compromised bank accounts is $1,421,616. The actual loss to Bank of America is $546,240.
Oluwadamilola Feyisetan, a/k/a Dami, a/k/a Lola (Dami), 24, of Laurel; Alexander Diya; and Malia Forrester, 31, of Millersville, Maryland have pleaded guilty to their participation in the scheme and are awaiting sentencing. Adeniyi Adebiyi, a/k/a Niyi, a/k/a Mike (Niyi), 28, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $148,000.