Leader of HELOC Fraud Ring Jailed for 69 Months

A New York man accused of leading a multi-national identity theft and fraud operation, which involved stealing money from home equity lines of credit (HELOC) accounts, was sentenced to 69 months in prison.

The DOJ announced [pdf] that Hakeem Olokodana, 43, of Queens, New York, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey to 45 months in prison for one count of conspiracy to coming bank fraud and one count of money laundering, and 24 months to run consecutively for a count of aggravated identity theft.

According to court documents, Olokodana was a leading member of an international identity theft ring that operated out of US, UK, Canada, China, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea and several other countries.

The operation focused on withdrawing money from HELOC accounts using the stolen identities of thousands of victims.

The data illegally obtained by the fraudsters included account holder names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, account numbers and account balances.

In addition, the investigators claim that sensitive information such as mother's maiden names, security question answers or online banking usernames and passwords was also compromised in some cases.

Both large and small financial institutions were targeted, including Citibank, JPMorganChase, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Bank of America, but also the Navy Federal Credit Union, the Pentagon Federal Credit Union, the U.S. Senate Federal Credit Union and the State Department Credit Union.

To instrument the fraud, Olokodana and his co-conspirators impersonated bank customers over the phone with bank representatives, used caller id spoofing and modified customers addresses on bank records.

A significant portion of the illegal proceeds was sent abroad to members of the gang located in countries like Japan, Nigeria, Canada, South Korea and others.

Olokodana pleaded guilty on November 24, 2009, before Judge William H. Walls. His prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release and he was also ordered to pay $2,739,874 in restitution.