Nigerians Sentenced For Identity Theft

HOUSTON – Moshood Balogun and Ayodeji Fashola, both 60, have been ordered to federal prison following their convictions in a mail and wire fraud conspiracy, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. The Nigerian immigrants each pleaded guilty in June 2014. 

Today, U.S. District Judge David Hittner ordered Balogun to serve a total of 145 months in federal prison for his convictions of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Fashola was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and procurement of naturalization by fraud and was ordered to serve 168 months in federal prison. They were further ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,681,521.69. Both men are naturalized U.S. citizens. However, Fashola’s citizenship was revoked after he admitted he committed fraud in its procurement and is expected to face deportation proceedings following release from prison.

Fashola formed a shell company called Kingsway Credit Collection in Cypress. He used the company to purchase credit profiles from a credit reporting company in Kennesaw, Ga. The credit profiles contained the names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses and other personal identity information (PII) of people located throughout the United States.

Fashola transferred the PII to Balogun, who then sold it to criminals throughout the country who used the information to commit a variety of different fraud schemes such as credit card fraud and bank fraud. Records show that Kingsway Credit Collection received as many as 100,000 credit profiles during this scheme and Balogun charged his customers $40 to $50 for each credit profile.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman is prosecuting the case.