A Philadelphia man who tried to trick Alaska out of thousands of dollars is heading to federal prison.
Adepoju Babatunde Salako, 33, was sentenced on Tuesday to a year and a half behind bars. He recently pleaded guilty to seven counts of wire fraud after a scheme to steal money from Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) program back in 2022.
The PFD is a program that gives yearly cash payouts to official residents of Alaska. In 2022, that payout was $3,284 per person. Salako, who had never even been to Alaska until he showed up for his court sentencing, wanted that money for himself.
According to court papers, Salako stole the real names and personal information of seven Alaska residents. He then made new email accounts for them and used their information to hijack their online “myAlaska” accounts, which residents use to sign up for the state money.
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Once he got inside the accounts, Salako changed the settings so the state would email him instead of the real residents. He also changed the bank details so the cash would deposit directly into his own bank accounts.
To hide where he was really sitting, Salako used a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN is a tool that scrambles computer data to hide a person’s real location. He used it to make six of the applications look like they were typed on a computer inside Alaska. However, he forgot to use it for the seventh application, which traced right back to an internet address in Philadelphia.
The plan failed. State workers noticed the red flags, marked the applications as fakes, and blocked the payments. If the state had not caught the trick, Salako would have walked away with $22,988.
This 18-month prison sentence will run at the same time as another sentence Salako is already serving. He is currently facing six and a half years in prison for a separate case out of Colorado involving fake COVID relief funds and international money laundering. In that case, he was ordered to pay back $2.5 million to his victims.
Law enforcement officials said they will continue to track down anyone targeting state money.
“Mr. Salako spent considerable time planning and perpetrating his scheme to defraud the Alaska PFD,” said U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman for the District of Alaska. “Thanks to the great work of the Alaska Department of Revenue and FBI, he didn’t succeed; but even attempting to defraud the PFD will not be tolerated and could result in federal prison.”
Matthew Schlegel, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Anchorage Field Office, noted that the state’s payout system is meant for locals, not scammers.
“The Alaska PFD program is intended to benefit current and future generations of eligible Alaskans, not criminals like Salako who seek to exploit the program through fraud and identity theft,” Schlegel said. “Despite efforts to mask his identity, Salako was identified through strong program safeguards and diligent investigative work in partnership with the Alaska Department of Revenue. This sentence reflects our commitment to safeguarding the integrity of government programs and holding fraudsters accountable for their crimes, regardless of where they reside.”
State officials added that they are actively looking out for these types of computer scams.
“This case should send a clear message that stealing an identity to exploit the Permanent Fund Dividend will not be tolerated,” said Scott Stair, the Department Investigations Manager for the State of Alaska Department of Revenue, Criminal Investigations Unit. “The Department of Revenue remains committed to protecting Alaskans from financial fraud and holding accountable anyone who seeks to profit though deception.”
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Anchorage office and the Alaska Department of Revenue, and it was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ainsley McNerney.
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