A federal grand jury indictment unsealed in Austin charges Austin residents Joel Calvin and Clarence Barefield along with seven other individuals for their roles in an estimated $250 million intended-loss fraudulent “sweepstakes" scheme and an estimated $25 million intended-loss income tax refund scheme.
That announcement was made today by U.S. Attorney John F. Bash; Special Agent in Charge Richard D. Goss, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Houston Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Shane Folden, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), San Antonio; and, Inspector in Charge Adrian Gonzalez, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Houston Division.
In addition to Calvin, age 31, and Barefield (aka CJ), age 40, the indictment charges Mesquite, TX, resident Donna Lundy, age 54; Nigerian citizens and Canadian residents Harry Cole (aka Akintomide Ayoola Bolu, aka John King, aka Big Bro, aka Egbon), age 48; Emmanuel Olawle Ajayi (aka Wale, aka Walata), age 41; Tony Dada Akinbobola (aka Lawrence D Awoniyi, aka Boss Tony, aka Toyin), age 47; Bolaji Akinwunmi Oyewole (aka BJ, aka Beejay), age 31; and, Nigerian citizen and Indianapolis, IN, resident Akintola Akinmadeyemi, age 54. All eight are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Sweepstakes) and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Emmanuel Ajayi also faces a second conspiracy-to-commit-wire-fraud charge (Stolen Identity Refund Fraud) and an aggravated identity theft charge. Lundy also faces one substantive count of wire fraud.
According to the indictment, the defendants carried out their sweepstakes scheme from 2012 to 2016. Charging $1 per name, Lundy collected over $700,000 by selling lists of elderly potential victims and their addresses to Cole in Canada. Cole and others conspirators based in the Toronto, Ontario Canada metropolitan area sent packages containing fraudulent sweepstakes information to conspirators residing in the U.S. The packages contained thousands of mailers, which U.S.-based conspirators sent to victims notifying them that they had won a sweepstakes. Each mailer included a fraudulent check issued in the name of the victim, typically in the amount of $8,000, and a pre-addressed envelope. Victims were instructed to deposit the check into his/her bank account, immediately withdraw between $5,000 and $7,000 dollars in cash or money orders and send the money to a “sweepstakes representative" to facilitate the victim collecting her or her prize. By the time the victim was notified by the bank that the deposited check was fraudulent, the cash or money order had been sent by the victim and received by the defendants or conspirators. The intended loss from this scheme was $250 million, with an actual loss of more than $900,000.
The indictment also alleges that from June 2015 through June 2016, Emmanuel Ajayi led a SIRF scheme in which over 1,200 fraudulent Income Tax Returns were filed using stolen Personal Identifying Information (PII) requesting $25 million in tax refunds. Ajayi used bank accounts involved in the sweepstakes scheme to receive refunds and funnel the money to conspirators in the U.S. An IRS analysis determined that this scheme resulted in the actual loss of approximately $3.4 million paid from the U.S. Treasury.
In order to acquire the money generated by the Sweepstakes and SIRF schemes, the conspirators operated a money laundering conspiracy in the U.S. That conspiracy employed knowing and unknowing participants to conduct financial transactions with the goals of moving the proceeds from both fraudulent schemes outside of the U.S. without detection by law enforcement.
Federal authorities arrested Calvin in Austin yesterday. Barefield is currently in state custody on an unrelated matter. Federal authorities arrested Akinmadeyemi in Indianapolis, IN, yesterday. He remains in federal custody awaiting transfer to the Austin Division of the Western District of Texas. Canadian authorities arrested Cole and Akinbobola in Canada yesterday pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant issued by a Canadian court. Both remain in Canada pending an extradition request by the U.S. Lundy has agreed to turn herself in to authorities. The whereabouts of Ajayi and Oyewole are unknown. Ajayi and Oyewole are considered fugitives.
Aggravated identity theft calls for a mandatory two years imprisonment upon conviction. Each of the remaining charges call for up to 20 years in federal prison upon conviction.
This indictment resulted from a continuing investigation by IRS-CI, HSI, and USPIS. The U.S. Marshals Service, the Office of International Affairs at the Department of Justice and the Toronto Police Service provided valuable assistance with yesterday’s arrests. Assistant United States Attorney Michael Galdo is prosecuting this case on behalf of the Government.
It is important to note that an indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
