A Nigerian man, Adepoju Salako, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for carrying out wire fraud linked to a 2022 Permanent Fund Dividend scheme in the United States.
Salako, who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, orchestrated a fraud scheme targeting the Alaska Department of Revenue’s PFD programme.
The 33-year-old was sentenced on Tuesday after court documents exposed his fraudulent actions between January and February 2022.
The disclosure was made in a press release published on the Department of Justice website on Friday.
“Salako obtained the personal identifying information for legitimate Alaskan residents and submitted seven separate applications to the Alaska DOR to obtain their PFD funds.
“Salako was never an Alaskan resident and had never traveled to Alaska up until his arrival in the state for his sentencing in this matter.
“Court documents detail that Salako created new email accounts that he controlled for each legitimate Alaska resident whose PII he fraudulently obtained,” the statement read.
He pleaded guilty to seven counts of wire fraud, with the sentence set to run concurrently with a separate COVID relief fraud and international money laundering case in the District of Colorado.
In the laundering case, he received a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution to victims affected by his crimes.
