BALTIMORE, MD—A Baltimore County man has been sentenced to 48 months in federal prison for his role in a bank fraud scheme that victimized a number of victims and took more than $1.8 million from the banking system.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Damilola Ojo, 31, of Windsor Mill, took part in the scheme, which used the Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS”) Modernized Internet Employer Identification Number (“Mod IEIN”) system.
The system requires a unique Employer Identification Number (“EIN”) to be provided in order to obtain an EIN for a business. Damilola Ojo and other co-conspirators used stolen personally identifiable information (“PII”) to generate EINs, which they then used to open bank accounts at various financial institutions.
The money was then transferred to other bank accounts controlled by the co-conspirators, and Damilola Ojo would often receive a portion of the money as it was rapidly withdrawn from the bank system. The scheme had an intended loss of at least $1.8 million.
Damilola Ojo was arrested and charged with numerous counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He also admitted to fraudulently obtaining $475,000 in CARES Act loans for a business that he shared with a co-conspirator.
The U.S. Department of Justice says that the CARES Act provided forgivable loans to small businesses impacted by the pandemic to help them retain employees and meet certain other expenses. Damilola Ojo is accused of stealing the money from a bank account that was opened in the name of his business.
Images of a bank card belonging to the business in which Damilola Ojo was a shareholder are included in the indictment.
The U.S. Department of Justice says that Damilola Ojo is one of four people who have been convicted in the scheme. The other three have all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
The DOJ says that the case was investigated as part of the CARES Act Strike Force, which was created to identify and prosecute fraud involving COVID-19 pandemic relief funds.
This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.
Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels
