Man Sentenced In Glastonbury School Employee Phishing Scam: Feds

GLASTONBURY, CT — A man was sentenced Thursday to 32 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for his alleged participation in a phishing scam that targeted Glastonbury and Groton school employees, according to United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut John H. Durham.

According to a news release, Daniel Adekunle Ojo, 34, a citizen of Nigeria who last resided in Durham, N.C., allegedly participated in a scheme to obtain the personal identifying information of school employees in Connecticut and elsewhere, and to file false tax returns in the names of those identity theft victims, Durham said.

According to court documents, a Glastonbury Public Schools employee received an email in February 2017 that appeared to be sent by another Glastonbury school system employee.

"The email contained a request to send W-2 tax information for all employees of the school system," Durham said in a release. "The recipient of the email responded by sending copies of the W-2 information for approximately 1,600 Glastonbury Public Schools employees. After the W-2 information was emailed, approximately 122 suspicious Forms 1040 were filed electronically with the IRS in the names of victims of the Glastonbury phishing scheme."

Durham said the 122 tax returns claimed tax refunds totaling $596,897. Approximately six of the returns were processed, and $36,926 in fraudulently-obtained funds were electronically deposited into various bank accounts.

According to Durham, the accused controlled or used an aol.com email account and a gmail.com email account involved in this phishing scheme.

"A search of Ojo’s gmail account revealed emails implicating him in the scheme," Durham said. "One email contained six W-2 forms of employees of Glastonbury Public Schools, and the employees’ personal identifying information."

This ongoing investigation by special agents from the FBI’s cybercrime squad in New Haven and the IRS includes phishing incidents targeted at Groton Public Schools, and the Bloomington Independent School District in Bloomington, Minn., Durham said.

The accused has been detained since his arrest on Aug. 3, 2017. Durham said he had entered the U.S. on a visitor’s visa in May 23, 2016, and failed to depart on his scheduled departure date of June 8, 2016.

On June 21, the accused pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, Durham said. He was ordered to pay $36,926 in restitution to the IRS.

This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, with the assistance of the Durham (N.C.) Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarala V. Nagala.

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