Feds File New Indictment in $3 Million Fraud That Targeted CU Shared Branching Network
The new court filing says 14 persons were involved in the nationwide conspiracy that used fake IDs to steal money from credit unions and banks.
Federal prosecutors filed a superseding indictment against two leaders and six other persons who were allegedly involved in a $3 million fraud conspiracy that targeted credit unions in the shared branch network.
Last December, the feds originally indicted and arrested Oluwaseun Adekoya of Newark, N.J., and David Daniyan of Brooklyn, N.Y., who allegedly organized the fraud scheme. The two organizers and six other conspirators were indicted on bank fraud conspiracy an ID theft charges.
The superseding indictment announced by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Albany, N.Y., last week lists additional felonies against Adekoya and Daniyan, and charges against six more persons, bringing the total number of conspirators to 14, who were allegedly involved in a nationwide conspiracy.
Although the 14 conspirators intended to steal nearly $3 million, more than $1.5 million was actually stolen, according to federal prosecutors.
The superseding indictment includes additional charges of bank fraud conspiracy and aggravated ID theft and new charges of money laundering conspiracy against Adekoya and Daniyan, and bank fraud conspiracy and ID theft felonies against six other conspirators.
According to the superseding indictment, between at least November 2021 and December 2023, the 14 defendants allegedly stole the identities of people from around the country and impersonated them at credit unions and banks to fraudulently obtain cash, checks, loans and credit. The conspirators allegedly opened accounts in the names of identity-theft victims, which were then used to deposit and access the funds from checks they had fraudulently obtained from credit unions and banks by impersonating other individuals.
Last year’s original indictment charged eight conspirators, including leaders of the national fraud scheme Adekoya and Daniyan, which exploited the shared branch network by coordinating more than 200 fraudulent transactions, stealing in excess of $900,000 from credit unions around the nation.
Police launched an investigation in May 2022 when three of the conspirators were caught attempting to defraud a Cohoes, N.Y., branch of the CAP COM Federal Credit Union where employees became suspicious and called police. CAP COM merged into the State Employees Federal Credit Union during the summer of 2022 to form the $9.1 billion Broadview Federal Credit Union in Albany, N.Y.
That investigation led to last year’s original indictment against the scheme’s leaders, Adekoya and Daniyan, and six other conspirators. They were all charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Adekoya and Daniyan allegedly obtained the personally identifiable information of scores of individuals who banked at credit unions throughout the United States. The fraud ring suspects exploited the shared branching network by creating fake identifications in the names of credit union members, but with photographs of other individuals, whom they employed to conduct fraudulent transactions at shared branch member credit unions across the nation.
The six other fraud ring conspirators charged in the original indictment were Victor Barriera, Gaysha Kennedy, Jerjuan Joyner, Akeem Balogun, Danielle Cappetti and Lesley Lucchese. According to federal prosecutors, Balogun, Barriera, Cappetti, Joyner, Kennedy and Lucchese each previously pled guilty and will be sentenced at a later date.
In the superseding indictment, Adekoya and Daniyan were charged with additional felonies, including new charges of money laundering conspiracy.
Adekoya was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy and nine counts of aggravated identity theft. Daniyan was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy and four counts of aggravated identify theft.
The superseding indictment also charged Kani Bassie of Brooklyn with with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Five other persons, each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, are Davon Huntera of Richmond, Va., Jermon Brooks of Richmond, Christian Quivers of Richmond, Sherry Ozmore of Richmond and Crystal Kurschner of Brooklyn, N.Y.
The superseding indictment also identified other credit unions that were allegedly victimized by the fraud scheme. In addition to CAP COM FCU, the indictment listed the $1.1 billion Sunmark Credit Union in Latham, N.Y., the $130 million UFirst Federal Credit Union in Plattsburgh, N.Y., the Damascus, Va., branch of the $5.3 billion Truliant Federal Credit Union, the Summerville, S.C., branch of the $3.6 billion Grow Financial Federal Credit Union and the $732 million First Heritage Federal Credit Union in Corning, N.Y.
The superseding indictment did not list any banks.