A Pennsylvania man, Adepoju Babatunde Salako, 33, has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud for a 2022 scheme to defraud the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) program. Salako, a Philadelphia resident, was never an Alaskan resident and attempted to illegally obtain PFD funds intended for legitimate Alaskans.
Between January and February 2022, Salako devised a plan to defraud the Alaska Department of Revenue (DOR) PFD program by fraudulently obtaining the personal identifying information (PII) of Alaskan residents. He then submitted seven separate applications to the Alaska DOR, creating new email accounts he controlled for each victim.
Salako gained control of at least seven existing “myAlaska” online accounts, which residents use to apply for the PFD. He altered account information to redirect communications and changed bank details to route PFD payments to accounts he controlled. To conceal his identity, Salako used a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to make six of the seven applications appear to originate from an Alaska IP address, while one was submitted from Philadelphia.
The State of Alaska identified the applications as fraudulent and denied them, preventing a potential loss of $22,988.00, which would have impacted the state and seven identity theft victims. Each eligible PFD applicant in 2022 received $3,284.00.
U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman for the District of Alaska said, “Mr. Salako spent considerable time planning and perpetrating his scheme to defraud the Alaska PFD. 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.” Special Agent in Charge Matthew Schlegel of the FBI Anchorage Field Office added that the sentence reflects a commitment to safeguarding government programs.
Salako’s prison sentence will run concurrently with a six-and-a-half-year sentence from a related COVID relief fund and international money laundering case in Colorado, where he was ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution. The FBI Anchorage Field Office and the State of Alaska Department of Revenue, Criminal Investigations Unit, investigated the case.