July 12, 1999

268 COUNT INDICTMENT CHARGES NINE NIGERIAN NATIONALS WITH NATIONWIDE CREDIT IDENTITY TAKEOVER SCHEME LINKED TO HEROIN DISTRIBUTION, FORGERY AND TAX FRAUD CONSPIRACIES

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, joined by New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir and Lee R. Heath, Inspector in Charge, United States Postal Inspection Service, New York Division, announced today the indictment of 9 Nigerian nationals in connection with

• •a sophisticated nationwide credit identity takeover scheme aimed at victimizing over 1,300 individuals in 20 states and many of our country's largest credit and banking institutions;
  
• •the sale and distribution of large quantities of heroin;
  
  
• •the forgery of drivers licenses, social security cards, credit cards and checks; and
  
  
• •the filing of fraudulent federal, state and local tax returns.
  

District Attorney Brown said, "The joint investigation leading to the indictment began as an investigation into heroin trafficking. Over time, and as the result of court authorized eavesdropping and other investigative methods, it was discovered that, in addition to heroin trafficking, the defendants were engaged in various fraudulent activities including a sophisticated series of identity takeover schemes and a conspiracy to forge financial documents and file fraudulent tax returns."

"These crimes undoubtly caused a great deal of anguish and aggravation to many, many victims," said New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir. "Clearly, these criminals were interested in any illegal enterprise, from street sales of narcotics to white collar crime, that might be turned into a money making venture. Today's indictments are a great example of how much can be accomplished when several agencies join forces."

According to District Attorney Brown, the investigation began in September 1998 and continued through the Spring of this year during which time the defendants Bola Adeola, Babatunde Shodunke and Joseph Omesiete allegedly sold to NYPD undercover officers an aggregate of $16,500 worth of heroin on 6 separate occasions. Over time -- and as a result of court authorized eavesdropping and other investigative methods -- the investigation went beyond narcotics trafficking to elaborate conspiracies involving identity takeovers, forgery and tax fraud.

According to the 268 count indictment, in addition to the undercover heroin sales, beginning in the spring of 1996 and until April 1999, the defendants Ayodele Peters, his wife Yewande Peters and others allegedly stole over $1.4 million dollars from 20 banks and credit card institutions in Maryland, Delaware, Illinois, New York, Colorado and other states in a sophisticated identity takeover conspiracy. It is charged that the defendant Ayodele Peters, with the help of his wife and Adebiyi Otulaja, among others, purchased copies of rental car agreements from a former employee of a car rental agency in Warwick, Rhode Island for $20 each. Armed with the names, addresses, social security numbers, credit card account numbers and copies of the drivers licenses of hundreds of legitimate citizens obtained from the rental agreements, the defendants are alleged to have obtained additional information about the victims' bank accounts and credit card accounts. During the course of the conspiracy, the defendants then allegedly opened approximately 80 new bank accounts and began transferring cash advances from legitimate card holders accounts to the accounts they had established using additional fictitious or stolen names and other information. They then would withdraw the money from the accounts they had created. In some instances it is alleged that the defendants make direct cash withdrawals from victims' accounts or used stolen or forged convenience checks written on their accounts.

District Attorney Brown said, "Our investigation revealed that the defendant Ayodele Peters and his co-conspirators had accumulated financial and personal information, including mothers' maiden names, of approximately 1,300 legitimate citizens from across the country which gave the defendants access to about $10 million dollars in credit. Although banks cover these kinds of financial losses the real loss to the victim is the loss of his or her credit rating and good name. There is also a personally invasive quality to this kind of fraud that causes victims a great deal of distress. It takes months -- often years -- to undo the damage done to the reputations of the victims of identity fraud and to restore their credit status and, of course, the monetary loss suffered by the banks and financial institutions is passed along to their customers in higher interest rates and fees."

"In addition," said the District Attorney, "the indictment charges that the defendant Derrick Rountree, an accountant who had offices in the Jess Center at 11 Snyder Avenue in Brooklyn, conspired with Bola Adeola, Ayodele Peters, Olusola Ashaye, Adebiyi Otulaja and Abiodun Oguntoyinbo to create forged social security cards, checks, drivers licenses and State Department immigration visa applications in order to

• •supply Ayodele Peters and others with identification to open fraudulent bank accounts;
  
• •allow aliens living in the New York area to file multiple copies of immigration lottery applications; and
  
• •furnish illegal aliens with the documentation necessary to obtain employment.

It is also charged that Rountree conspired with said defendants to electronically file federal, state and local tax returns with fraudulent W-2 forms and false dependent social security numbers claiming refunds due to the defendants -- refunds which were promptly paid by the tax authorities."

District Attorney Brown said, "The energy, time and thought put into this elaborate criminal enterprise could have run a very successful legitimate business. The defendants were enterprising individuals willing to turn their hands to any kind of criminal activity which would make them wealthy. They not only committed fraud but instructed their friends and associates in methods of defrauding others including the federal, state and local governments."

The defendants will be arraigned on the indictment today before Acting Supreme Court Justice Seymour Rotker in Supreme Court, Kew Gardens. During the investigation detectives executed search warrants at the following locations:

146 Beach 59^th Street, Apartment 907, Arverne

13-06 Augustina Avenue, Far Rockaway

146 Beach 59^th Street, Apartment 711, Arverne

108-11 Flatlands 9 Street, Brooklyn

412 Chauncey Street, Brooklyn

352A Hancock Street, Apartment 2R, Brooklyn

11 Snyder Avenue, 3^rd Floor, Brooklyn

The arrests were carried out by Detectives Jerome Kern and David DeGeorge of Narcotics Borough Queens under the supervision of Sgt. Rick Daoust and the overall supervision of Deputy Inspectors Denis McCarthy and Michael Waltman. Narcotics Borough Queens is under the overall command of the NYPD's Chief of Organized Crime Control Martin O'Boyle and Assistant Chief Charles Kammerdener of the NYPD's Narcotics Division.

District Attorney Brown commended the work of Postal Inspector Richard Cinnamo of the United States Postal Inspection Service who headed the investigation into the identity takeover aspects of the case under the supervision of Assistant Special Agent in Charge Leonard Kennedy.

Assistant District Attorney Brian Stavrides of the District Attorney's Narcotics Investigation Bureau, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Bureau Chief Wilbert J. LeMelle and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Robert D. Alexander, presented the case to the Grand Jury and is in charge of the prosecution.

It is to be noted that an indictment is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.