Five defendants have been sentenced to federal prison for their roles in stealing more than $1.4 million in an identity theft scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta said.
They pleaded guilty and were convicted of conspiracy, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, authorities said Monday.
“The defendants tormented dozens of innocent victims who went to the bank only to discover that their accounts had been drained and identities stolen,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in the news release.
Officials said Gafar O. Kosoko Balogun, 30, of Atlanta,, ran the ring that targeted financial institutions including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, SunTrust and BB&T from February 2010 through August 2011.
Balogun used the Internet to obtain victims’ financial account information, gain access to credit reports, and collect business information and tax identification numbers, according to authorities. He also called banks and impersonated account holders, they said.
He passed information to four people — Donish Adkins, Orlon Hall, Christian Okafor and Wayne Cunningham — who recruited “runners” who, armed with fake IDs supplied by Balogun, went into banks to withdraw the victims’ cash. The runners got about $500 per transaction, prosecutors said, while the defendants shared the rest of the money.
Investigators said more than 60 accounts were touched by the scheme. There were more than $2.7 million in actual and attempted withdrawals from accounts, with the defendants successfully withdrawing more than $1.4 million.
Okafor, 36, of Duluth, was sentenced Monday to three years, 10 months in prison and must pay about $97,000 in restitution.
His co-conspirators were sentenced Thursday.
Balogun received a sentence of six years, six months and must pay more than $1.4 million in restitution.
Adkins, 35, of Johns Creek, got five years, three months behind bars and has to pay more than $525,000.
Hall, 32, of Alpharetta, was sentenced to five years, 10 months in prison and restitution of nearly $700,000.
Cunningham, 53, of College Park, who authorities said also impersonated victims, received a sentence of seven years, three month in prison. He was ordered to pay about $47,000.
All five defendants will have three years of supervised release following their prison time.
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