Pittsburgh man gets 44 months in federal prison for 'hijacking' bank, credit accounts

A Pittsburgh man has been sentenced to 3 years and 8 months behind bars for using fraudulently obtained debit and credit cards to buy $250,000 worth of gift cards, clothes, jewelry and other items, U.S. Attorney Cindy K. Chung said.

Sulemon Arowokoko, 32, a Nigerian native who also has ties to Braddock and McKeesport, co-ran a sophisticated plot to “hijack” the financial accounts and personal information of victims in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere, Chung said.

Chung said the debit and credit cards were used to buy gift cards, clothes, cologne, perfume, jewelry, furniture and other items.

Arowokoko pleaded guilty in June to charges of conspiracy, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

A sentencing hearing is pending for Arowokoko’s co-conspirator, Samiat Akinyemi, a Nigerian native who pleaded guilty to similar charges in September, court records show.

From 2017 through mid-2019, prosecutors said Arowokoko and Akinyemi used stolen personal information such as Social Security numbers, emails, passwords and other “identifiers to induce financial institutions to issue credit and debit cards on victim customers’ accounts.”

The pair were indicted last year after Homeland Security agents served a search warrant at Arowokoko’s Pittsburgh residence, as well as at a house where he had previously worked as a home aide.

Arowokoko used those fraudulently obtained credit and debit cards to make hundreds of purchases for gift cards and other items to either keep or resell for a profit abroad, prosecutors said.

“Some of those items were shipped to Nigeria as part of the conspiracy,” Chung’s office said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge J. Nicolas Ranjan imposed the 44-month prison sentence on Arowokoko earlier this week.

Arowokoko’s attorney Robert Carey Jr. had requested less prison time, arguing that Arowokoko had no prior criminal record and was not the scheme’s ringleader.