Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ADEDAYO ILORI, a recidivist fraudster with multiple prior fraud convictions and who continued to engage in fraudulent conduct even following his guilty plea, was sentenced today to 63 months’ imprisonment for his role in a commercial loan fraud and bank bribery scheme. ILORI’s sentence was imposed by United States District Judge Lewis J. Liman. Codefendants Herode Chancy and Michael Albarella, who at the time of offense were employed as managers at a Manhattan branch of a national bank (“Bank-1”), were previously sentenced to 30 months’ and six months’ imprisonment, respectively.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Adedayo Ilori has a history of engaging in fraud using the identities of other people. Here, Ilori worked with bank insiders to obtain over $1 million in commercial loans for fake businesses. Ilori used stolen identities to apply for the loans and open bank accounts to receive the loan proceeds. His co-conspirators used a stolen identity provided by Ilori to launder a portion of the loan proceeds. Today’s sentence sends the message to Ilori and others engaged in fraud using stolen identities that such conduct will be seriously punished.”
According to the allegations in the Complaint, Indictment, and statements made in court:
From at least in or about March 2019 up to and including at least in or about March 2020, ILORI and Chancy conspired to fraudulently obtain business loans from a third-party commercial lender with the intent not to repay the loans – i.e., with the intent to “bust out” the loans. ILORI and Chancy together submitted eight fraudulent business loan applications for a total of $1,020,000 in business loans. The business loan applications submitted by ILORI and Chancy included doctored bank statements and listed the identities of other persons as the loan applicants, including stolen identities provided by ILORI. ILORI and Chancy also opened bank accounts using the identities of those other persons in order to receive the loan payments from the third-party commercial lender. ILORI and Chancy subsequently conspired with Albarella to open a bank account at Bank-1 using a stolen identity provided by ILORI to launder approximately $200,000 of the expected proceeds of the loan scheme. Albarella opened the bank account at Bank-1 using the stolen identity provided by ILORI and Chancy, and Albarella accepted a $10,000 bribe to open the bank account.
ILORI and Chancy believed that the underwriter for the third-party commercial lender was participating in the scheme and agreed to pay the underwriter a “commission” for the underwriter’s role in the scheme. In reality, however, the underwriter was an undercover law enforcement officer.
After pleading guilty in this case, ILORI continued to engage in fraudulent conduct using stolen identities by renting an apartment using a stolen identity, leasing a vehicle using a stolen identity, making purchases using a bank card in the name of a stolen identity, and possessing bank cards and identification cards in the names of several stolen identities. Separately, ILORI has been indicted in this District in 21 Cr. 746 for engaging in a multi-million dollar COVID-19 loan fraud scheme, and the case is pending before Judge Vyskocil. The charges contained in Indictment 21 Cr. 746 are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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In addition to the prison term, ILORI, 43 of Queens, New York, was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $10,000 in fraudulent proceeds.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the New York FBI’s Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force and the El Dorado Task Force of Homeland Security Investigations.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Tara M. La Morte and Cecilia E. Vogel are in charge of the prosecution.