Fargo, ND: “Canadian” gets 18 years for major credit card scam
Posted by acorcoran on January 26, 2012
When I saw that title (or a similar one) about this story, I knew before reading further that it wouldn’t be somebody named Smith or Jones (or whatever the Canadian version is of ‘everyman’). The convicted thief is Adekunle Adetiloye, a Nigerian who became a Canadian citizen (although maybe he faked a passport too!).
I don’t know if he is a refugee originally granted asylum in Canada or what, but I do know that I had to laugh when I saw that the word ‘Nigerian’ was eliminated the second time it was mentioned in one mainstream media version of the story.
Here is USA Today on the story (one of the largest bank heists in US history!):
FARGO, N.D. – He was unemployed and receiving welfare, but Adekunle Adetiloye was somehow living lavishly, complete with a Range Rover, extended trips to England and an expensive condominium.
That alone piqued authorities’ interest, but then there were two credit cards tucked away in his wallet that seemed to confirm suspicions that Adetiloye, a Nigerian-born Canadian citizen, was up to something nefarious. The cards each bore different names — Donald Douglas and Vincent Andriole — and helped authorities prosecute a case they describe as one of the largest high-tech bank robberies in U.S. history. [the 'N-word' is here---ed].
“Characterizing this fraud scheme as massive, if anything, is an understatement,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Chase of North Dakota said in court documents.
Adetiloye, 30, was sentenced Monday to nearly 18 years in prison on fraud charges. He was convicted of mail fraud, but authorities believe he masterminded a scheme to open nearly 600 fraudulent bank accounts and bilk 22 major banks out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Federal prosecutor Nick Chase said during the sentencing hearing in North Dakota that Adetiloye had an “insatiable hunger for other people’s money.”
Gee, that seems to apply to a lot of people these days—insatiable hunger for other people’s money!
Here is the paragraph at USA Today that I want you to look at:
Defense attorney Richard Henderson had asked for a sentence of fewer than 16 years. Henderson said any prison time for his client is more difficult than it would be for American citizens because he has no family in the United States.
Now, here is the same paragraph as originally written by AP and posted at Canadian Immigration Report where the reporter apparently wanted readers to not miss the fact that he was a Nigerian (not a native Canadian) by mentioning that fact twice.
Defence lawyer Richard Henderson had asked for a sentence of fewer than 16 years. Henderson said any prison time for his client, a native of Nigeria, is more difficult than it would be for American citizens because he has no family in the United States.
The phrase—a native of Nigeria—has been removed from the USA Today story (although it is mentioned once in the story).
And, by the way, why should anyone worry about this crook getting a lesser sentence then an American citizen just because he has no family in the US. He surely wasn’t thinking about that when he was ruining the financial lives of hundreds of Americans.
With all the unrest in Nigeria (Muslims killing Christians), look for us to open up refugee resettlement from that country next!
If any of our Canadian readers know more about this guy, please comment. It’s highly likely he wasn’t even a Canadian citizen, and Canada shouldn’t be the bad guy to all the American readers who skim only headlines and never read further.
Endnote: As I have said many times, someone should write a blog just about fraud schemes by immigrants. The food stamp fraud is especially egregious and the mainstream media is too squishy to report on it in any thorough way.
freshideaguy said
It would seem to me that the risk of being caught bilking the food stamp system is, or should be, very high.
If a corner grocery’s books show that it sold food stamp eligible items in the amount of $15,000 monthly for
an annual total of $180,000 then that is an amount that should be easily verifiabal.
If then, that store turns in $750,000 worth of food stamps to the government for reimbursement then a red
flag should be raised that eventually should result in an investigation, indictment, trial, conviction and likely
imprisonment.
All that needs to be done to initiate this process is a monthly, quartely or annual comparison of food sales with
the food stamp reimbursement requests made to the proper authorities.
This should be so automatic, and potentially incriminating, that it is hard for me to understand why food stamp
fraud isn’t ended overnight.
What am I missing?
acorcoran said
Sounds reasonable to me…but LOL! the federal government has hired a BIG federal contractor to find the fraud at a cost of millions of taxpayer dollars! How is that contractor going to make a living, if they institute some simple bookkeeping requirements?
I am told that one red flag for people in the community to note themselves is the amount of food on the shelves. If the convenience store doesn’t have well-stocked shelves that is a tip-off. If you suspect that something is fishy in your area, just go to the local police department and suggest a sting. I’ve seen it done. They can send in undercover people for awhile to try to sell their food stamp benefits, if they find that it is happening, then they turn them into the feds. Citizen watch dogs can help this epidemic of the redistribution of your wealth to criminals.
A friend of mine suggested that since the majority of this type of big fraud is happening only in the mom & pop convenience stores, then just have the big grocery store chains as the only place to use food stamps. I don’t know any place that doesn’t have a substantial grocery store nearby.