A Rhode Island man was convicted for his role in a bank fraud conspiracy that targeted financial institutions in southern New Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced Thursday.
Federal officials said Mr. Olayinka Peter Olaseinde, 42, of Providence, Rhode Island, was convicted on June 21, 2022, of one count of bank fraud conspiracy and three counts of bank fraud following a five-day bench trial before U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman in Camden federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial:
Olaseinde was part of a Nigerian-based, multi-layered criminal organization that engaged in a bank fraud conspiracy in several states, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Rhode Island, from June 2016 to March 2020.
Members of the group acquired business checks that were stolen from the United States mail, altered the payee on the checks to a fraudulent name and deposited the checks into bank accounts that had been opened with counterfeit foreign passport documents and counterfeit U.S. visas that matched the names on the altered checks.
Members of the group also opened credit card and bank accounts using stolen personal information of real victims, took cash advances on these fraudulent credit card accounts, and deposited fraudulent checks into these identity theft bank accounts.
After the banks credited all or a portion of the funds to the accounts, the defendants withdrew the funds from ATMs or purchased money orders, using debit cards associated with the fraudulent accounts.
Olaseinde’s role in the conspiracy included making deposits of stolen and altered, or otherwise fraudulent, checks into several of these accounts and making purchases and withdrawing funds from the accounts.
Each of the four counts on which he was convicted carries a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million.
Sentencing is scheduled for October 27, 2022.