Multitude Of Government Agencies Victimized Out Of $4M By NJ Man: Feds

A New Jersey man stole more than $4 million through a clutch of schemes that included defrauding three different government programs, authorities charged.

Martin Luther King Jr. U.S. District Courthouse in Newark.
Photo Credit: *Arie Hoogendoorn*

Jerry DeMarco

05/09/2023 4:25 p.m.

Gbenga Akinbode, 33, of Newark, opened a bank account and then used 120 different debit cards to buy $500,000 worth of money orders that were deposited into the account, according to a complaint filed by Homeland Security Investigations in U.S. District Court in Newark.

Investigators discovered that the debit cards were funded with $4 million in fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits, bogus Paycheck Protection Program loans and unqualified payments from the IRS, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger and HSI Newark Special-Agent-in-Charge Ricky J. Patel said.

A U.S. District Court judge in Newark released Akinbode on $300,000 bail.

HSI Newark worked the case with special agents of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, Patel noted. He also thanked the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark for its assistance.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Kogan of Sellinger’s Cybercrime Unit in Newark is handling the case for the government.

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