Oluwagbemiga Otufale, 44, of Riverdale has been arraigned on federal charges of conspiracy and money laundering. Otufale was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 21.
Otufale – aka Joseph Perrone, Kelvin Benjamin, and Abraham Young, among other names – was charged with money laundering conspiracy and concealment of money laundering as a result of these activities.
“Money launderers function as the financiers of criminal organizations, enabling the victimization of our communities while hiding behind a shield of anonymity built through a maze of aliases, bank accounts, and business transactions,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “We will continue to bring sophisticated money launderers to justice, especially the criminals who exploited the pandemic to steal from those in need.”
“It is disheartening to see the lengths that some individuals will go to take advantage of people in need during a national and world crisis,” said Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “No matter how elaborate or complicated the fraud scheme, the FBI and our partners will work to uncover it and bring those responsible to justice.”
“An important mission of the Office of Inspector General is to investigate allegations of fraud related to unemployment insurance benefit programs. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate these types of allegations,” stated Mathew Broadhurst, Special Agent-in-Charge, Atlanta Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.
According to information presented in court: The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act created a temporary federal program that provided up to 39 weeks of unemployment benefits for those unemployed as a result of the pandemic and included a provision to provide temporary benefits to individuals who had exhausted their entitlement to regular benefits or were otherwise not eligible. That temporary federal program was administered by state employment agencies.
Otufale allegedly laundered money procured from fraudulent unemployment claims submitted to state employment agencies in Washington, Illinois, and Massachusetts. These claims were filed using stolen personally identifiable information of over a hundred individuals. Otufale also allegedly laundered proceeds from a business email compromise scheme targeting two Georgia businesses. Additionally, Otufale allegedly created multiple aliases and sham business entities to open financial accounts in which he deposited the fraudulent proceeds.
Members of the public are reminded that the indictment only contains charges. The defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government’s burden to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.