Conspirator Sentenced in Scheme to Use Stolen Identities to Withdraw Money from Victims’ Bank Accounts and Obtain Credit

Greenbelt, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. sentenced Ibraheem Majekodunmi, age 28, of Hyattsville, Maryland to 64 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiring to commit bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and mail theft in a scheme to use stolen identification information to withdraw money from victims’ bank accounts and obtain credit. Judge Williams also ordered Majekodunmi to pay restitution of $99,086.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Postal Inspector in Charge Gary R. Barksdale of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service - Washington Division.

"This is another example of the Postal Inspection Service continuing an investigation for as long as it takes to bring those criminals to justice who attempt to use the mail for nefarious purposes,” stated Postal Inspector in Charge Gary Barksdale. “The U.S. mail continues to be a sacred institution and tampering with mail or its fraudulent use will not go unpunished."

According to his plea agreement, from June 2008 to December 2009, Majekodunmi and others stole identification information of other individuals in order to withdraw money from the victims’ bank accounts and secure credit in their names. Majekodunmi and co-defendant Keith Parker requested that the U.S. Postal Service hold victims’ mail, which they would retrieve, sometimes using fake identification cards in the victims’ names. Majekodunmi accessed the victims’ bank accounts on-line and changed their contact information, in order to conceal the fraud scheme from the banks. Other times, Majekodunmi stole victims’ identification information with the help of co-conspirators employed by banks where victims maintained accounts, and co-defendant Kim Henson stole checks from mailboxes in Prince George’s County and elsewhere.

Majekodunmi, Parker, Henson, Lawrence Green and other defendants withdrew money from the victims’ bank accounts. Majekodunmi and Green also used the stolen identification information to obtain credit in the names of the victims, and to create new bank accounts in the victims’ names to deposit and then use the stolen funds. Majekodunmi and Parker also paid third parties to use their bank accounts to deposit stolen funds, and then Parker and Green withdrew cash from those accounts.

The defendants shared the stolen funds which totaled between $200,000 and $400,000.

On October 23, 2008, Majekodunmi was arrested while attempting to cash the postal money orders obtained with a victim’s debit card. Majekodunmi admitted that his involvement in the scheme resulted in a total intended loss of at least $280,184 from approximately 31 victims.

All six defendants have pleaded guilty to their participation in the scheme. Lawrence Irvin Green, age 47, of Brentwood, Maryland, and Princess Smith, age 29, of Trenton, New Jersey were both sentenced to six years in prison; Keith Parker, age 40, of Bladensburg, Maryland, and Kim Henson, age 47, of Washington, D.C., were both sentenced to 67 months in prison. Joann Kinard, age 59, of Brentwood, is scheduled to be sentenced on November 20, 2012.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for its work in the investigation and thanked Assistant United States Attorney Robert K. Hur, who prosecuted the case.