Nigerian-American sentenced for Alaska dividend fraud
A Nigerian-American man, Adepoju Salako, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for attempting to steal over $22,000 from Alaska’s oil wealth dividend programme. Authorities say Salako hijacked the online accounts of seven Alaska residents to redirect their Permanent Fund Dividend payments into his own bank accounts. The Alaska Department of Revenue detected the fraud and denied all seven applications. Salako will serve this sentence alongside a separate federal prison term for unrelated financial crimes.
What happened
- Adepoju Salako pleaded guilty to seven counts of wire fraud in a federal court in Anchorage, Alaska.
- He used stolen personal information to submit fraudulent applications for the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend.
- The Alaska Department of Revenue identified and stopped the scheme before any funds were paid out.
- Salako’s 18-month sentence will run concurrently with a six-and-a-half-year sentence from a separate case involving COVID-19 relief fund fraud and money laundering.
- Officials emphasized that attempts to defraud the Alaska PFD will not be tolerated and highlighted ongoing efforts to protect residents from financial fraud.
