A Brooklyn man, Olabanji Otufale, and his co-conspirator, Marc Lazarre, on Monday pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft of homeless individuals.
As alleged in the indictment, court filings and statements made in court, the defendants conspired to steal the personal information of homeless individuals and use that stolen information to fraudulently apply for unemployment insurance benefits in the names of those homeless individuals without their knowledge or consent, according to a press release from Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
At the time of the scheme, Otufale was a fraud investigator with the New York City Department of Homeless Services. In that role, Otufale was responsible for ensuring individuals who applied for homeless services, such as housing in homeless shelters, were qualified to receive New York City Department of Homeless services, according to the press release.
Otufale, however, used his access to a Department of Homeless Services database to steal the personal identifying information, including the names, social security numbers and dates of birth of vulnerable victims who had given that personal information to the Department of Homeless Services when they applied for social services.
Otufale then texted this victim information to Lazarre who applied online for unemployment benefits in the names of the homeless victims. Otufale and Lazarre conspired to split the fraudulent benefits they received.
“The defendants shamefully stole vulnerable homeless victims’ personal identifying information for their own personal gain,” said Peace. “Instead of investigating fraud, as the City of New York trusted Otufale to do, the defendants abused Otufale’s position and access to sensitive data to commit fraud. That the defendants face a mandatory prison sentence of two years should serve as a deterrent message to others who think about corruptly stealing identities and taxpayer funds.”
Sentencing will take place on October 9 for Otufale and October 10 for Lazarre. When sentenced, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of 32 years in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years’ imprisonment.
