Feds: Postal worker stole IDs on route

By Kristi E. Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Opeoluwa Adigun started stealing other people’s identities even before she got to the United States, authorities said.

While still in Nigeria, Adigun took the name of Mary Afolabi, another Nigerian citizen, before coming to America. Adigun used that to get a fake passport, Social Security card and become a U.S. citizen before launching on spree of identify thefts with another person.

On Wednesday Adigun and Gabriel Onyekaba, 32, both of Marietta, were indicted before a federal magistrate on multiple charges of conspiracy and identity theft, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Adigun was also charged with immigration, Social Security, and passport fraud.

Adigun is accused of using a fake name to take a job as a mail carrier in the Hiram Post Office, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. She then started stealing personal information from more than 80 people along her mail route and, along with Onyekaba, used that information to open up bank accounts, obtain loans and get credit cards, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

The pair also created two fake businesses: GMO Auto Services in Douglasville and Gabmike Limousine Service in Smyrna, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

As part of their conspiracy, the two would deposit fraudulent loan proceeds into bank accounts and then write checks from those accounts to their two sham businesses, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Authorities arrested Adigun and Onyekaba in March after they used fake credit cards to buy gift cards and other merchandise. Officials found dozens of American Express, Walmart, and Target gift cards that had been purchased with stolen credit cards in the names of people who live along the Adigun’s mail route, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

“Identity theft is not a ‘soft crime’; it destroys the good credit and peace of mind of its victims,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said.

A federal grand jury indicted the pair on 46-counts that include conspiracy, access device or credit card fraud, aggravated identity theft, bank fraud, mail theft, immigration fraud, social security fraud, and passport fraud.

The charges carry maximum sentences that range from five to 30 years in prison.

They are scheduled for a detention hearing on Friday at 3 p.m.

Multiple agencies, including the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Secret Service, the sheriff’s departments of Paulding, Douglas and Cobb counties and the Hiram and Cobb County police department are investigating this case.