Belcamp Man Sentenced To Prison For Role In $1.5M Bank Fraud Scheme

HARFORD COUNTY, MD — A Belcamp man has been sentenced for aggravated identity theft and for his role in an attempted bank fraud scheme that led to the loss of $1.5 million.

According to his guilty plea, from April 2016 through at least August 2019, 30-year-old Victor Ojo conspired with others to commit bank fraud using the Internal Revenue Service’s Modernized Internet Employer Identification Number system. Ojo and his co-conspirators created and used stolen EINs to open bank accounts and deposit stolen and altered checks, and receive fraudulently obtained wire transfers and other funds. Many of the wire transfers were completed due to compromised business emails. The co-conspirators withdrew the proceeds and transferred them to other bank accounts, prosecutors said.

After Ojo’s arrest, law enforcement discovered evidence linking him to the fraudulent activity including financial documents; a jacket, shirt and hat that they saw him wearing in bank surveillance footage while using the fraudulent accounts; and a $14,000 check with someone else’s name on it. They also found passports in other people’s names and a Colorado ID with authentication features in someone else’s name, according to court documents.

In the plea agreement, Ojo admitted that he also engaged in fraudulent activities before he was arrested for bank fraud conspiracy. He and co-conspirators fraudulently obtained $28,350 in unemployment insurance benefits from the state of California using another victim’s identification, court documents showed. Ojo received a Bank of America debit card issued in the victim's name to an address in Lanham in August 2021. The card contained $28,350 in unemployment insurance benefits. Ojo used the card to withdraw thousands of dollars from various ATMs in Harford County.

Ojo has been sentenced to 72 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He also was ordered to forfeit $20,014.03 and to pay $78,350 in restitution.