The two men behind an international
identity theft ring that bilked consumers out of more than $50 million were recently sentenced in a Minneapolis court room on multiple charges.
Julian Okeayaninneh of California received 324 months in prison on 11 counts of bank fraud, six counts of mail fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, two counts of wire fraud, and one count each of bank fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and trafficking under false authentication features, according to a report from the
Huffington Post. Okeayaninneh's partner, Olugbenga Adeniran of New York, received 266 months in federal prison on similar but lesser charges.
"The sophisticated means used and the use of bank insiders in this fraud is troubling to the court," Judge Michael Davis said at the sentencing. "You are the leader, and it's a sad day that I have to send someone to prison for such a long time. But you deserve the sentence you receive."
Ondrej Krehel, chief information security officer of Identity Theft 911, writes regularly on his blog about the dangers large identity theft rings pose to consumers.
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