Newark Man Admits Guilt in Scheme to Bilk Retirement Accounts

A former Newark resident who had been extradited from Nigeria admitted his role in stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from more than half a dozen retirement accounts, US Attorney Paul Fishman announced Thursday.

Rasheed Mustapha, 35, obtained confidential customer information for seven 401(k) accounts while employed at a Little Falls call center that serviced the accounts. Mustapha used the information to issue rollover checks, which were mailed to others involved in the scheme and deposited in accounts opened under aliases in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona. About $750,000 in bogus rollover checks were deposited, with much of the money withdrawn before one of the co-conspirators was arrested.

Mustapha then fled to Nigeria, where he was arrested in March 2011. He was extradited to the United States in February.

The company sponsoring the accounts suffered an $800,000 loss restoring the stolen funds plus interest.  

Mustapha faces a maximum penalty of 20 years for each of 10 counts of mail fraud and money laundering and several hundred thousand dollars in fines. He is scheduled to be sentenced in November.

The other three individuals involved in the scheme have already been sentenced. Maxwell Owoeye, a 33-year-old Nigerian citizen who had lived in Hackettstown, was sentenced to 63 months in July 2009. Adeyemo Popoola, 28, also a Nigerian national and a former New Brunswick resident, was sentenced to 18 months in 2009, and Faruk Oncel, a 45-year-old Turkish citizen who had been living in Paterson, was sentenced to 27 months in March 2010.