Leader Of Money Laundering Operation Sentenced To Three Years In Prison
Friday, July 28, 2023
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that ABRAHAM ADENIYI was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos to three years in prison for operating a money laundering scheme that laundered nearly $8 million of wire fraud proceeds. ADENIYI previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Abraham Adeniyi used a web of bank accounts to funnel millions of dollars stolen from fraud victims into his own pockets and the pockets of the fraudsters. He now faces prison time and is required to forfeit his ill-gotten gains.”

According to the allegations in the Indictment filed against ADENIYI and other court proceedings:

From at least in or about 2017 through at least in or about 2020, ADENIYI opened and directed others to open multiple bank accounts, which received proceeds of various wire fraud schemes. ADENIYI provided his accomplices with fraudulent identification information to open those bank accounts. Upon arrival of the fraudulent proceeds, ADENIYI transferred and directed others to transfer those proceeds rapidly among the various bank accounts controlled by participants in the scheme in order to conceal and disguise the source, location, ownership, and control of the funds. Ultimately, after moving through multiple bank accounts, the funds were withdrawn as cash, transmitted overseas, or used for ADENIYI’s personal expenses. This rapid transfer of funds prevented the banks and the victims from recovering the funds once the underlying frauds were detected. During the course of the scheme, ADENIYI laundered at least nearly $8 million dollars of fraud proceeds.

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In addition to his prison term, ADENIYI, 40, of Atlanta, Georgia, was ordered to forfeit and pay restitution in the amount of $7,814,294.56.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anden Chow is in charge of the prosecution.