By Sonya McLean
A man described as being at the midlevel tier of a criminal organisation involved in a global invoice redirect fraud and banking scams has been jailed for five years and four months.
Sodiq Jimoh (30) of Rossfield Close, Rossfield, Tallaght, Dublin 24, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to contributing to the activities of a criminal organisation and nine charges of money laundering on dates between May 2019 and August 2020.
The court heard that Jimoh was responsible for laundering €1,000,065 from various individual people and small Irish companies. The court heard that some of the victims’ money was re-imbursed and some of the cash was recovered.
Judge Martin Nolan said Jimoh was “seriously involved in crime” and had helped launder money that had been “obtained under various schemes, frauds and scams”.
The judge said Jimoh was “an intelligent, competent and very busy man” otherwise he would not have been recruited to get involved in the organisation.
He noted that it was his job to withdraw money from the bank accounts of various money mules and also to access the online banking of many of the victims in order to move cash.
Judge Nolan accepted that Jimoh did not cause the gardaí any trouble but noted that he made no relevant admissions during garda interview.
He acknowledged that Jimoh had “good strong mitigation” with family support, good testimonials and a lack of serious convictions but he added “the wrongdoing is serious” before he jailed Jimoh for five years and four months having given him credit for six weeks he has spent on remand in custody.
Detective Garda Ester Devally told Maddie Grant BL, prosecuting, that Jimoh was caught under a garda operation called Operation Skein which was run by the arda National Economic Crime Bureau and was a global investigation into invoice redirect fraud and compromised email scams.
Initially, the investigation focused on two Ulster Bank accounts which had suspected fraudulent activity relating to just over €387,000 and €83,000. A phone number associated with each of these accounts had been registered to Jimoh and the owners of the accounts didn’t have access to them.
Gardaí became aware then of Jimoh’s possible involvement in this global fraud and found further suspicious activity in accounts with Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank.
They found various lodgements totalling €26,000 into various accounts linked to Jimoh over a 16 month period that did not relate to his wages or social welfare payments.
Analysis of his phone led to the discovering of a WhatsApp conversation between him and two other people – one of whom has since been prosecuted in relation to money laundering.
The conversations illustrated that Jimoh had knowledge of various frauds that had been carried out and included screenshots of bank details – with one comment from Jimoh stating “I need a bank card for this”.
Another comment “Fam, at the end of the day it is free money” had come from Jimoh.
Det Gda Devally said there was also reference to the fact that Jimoh was due to receive 30 percent of whatever was stolen for his role.
The detective said that there were times when Jimoh would take control of a bank account online after a six digit access number was sent to his phone. This would allow him to gain access so that he could move cash in and out of various accounts.
He was also captured on CCTV footage making ATM withdrawals from various money mule accounts – people that had been recruited into the scheme so that their bank accounts could be used to launder the stolen cash.
Det Gda Devally said gardaí are satisfied that Jimoh played a midlevel role in the organisation in that he controlled and managed the movement of the money. She said he was in contact with various people who were acting as money mules but also acknowledged that there were people higher up the organisation than Jimoh.
The court heard of different frauds which involved invoice redirect fraud, compromised emails outlining a change of bank account for payment and smishing scams.
In one such compromised email, a customer was scammed after he lodged money into account that he believed was that of his solicitor’s. The solicitor was later at a loss as they re-imbursed the customer.
In another incident, a woman in her 70s had €20,000 taken from her bank account and transferred to various money mule accounts. The bank later re-imbursed this woman.
Det Gda Devally said Jimoh’s home was searched on September 26, 2022 and various clothing, which had been worn by the suspect captured withdrawing cash from ATMs on CCTV, was seized.
He was arrested and questioned 15 times over the course of five days and while he was “polite and friendly” Det Gda Devalley confirmed that “nothing of evidential value” was gained from the interviews.
Victim impact statements were handed into the court but not read out.
Det Gda Devally agreed with Stephen Montgomery BL, defending, that the offending took place over a short space of time and Jimoh was compliant with gardaí.
She further accepted that there was “no suggestion that he would contest the case”.
James Dwyer SC defending (with Mr Montgomery) said that his client came to Ireland in 2003 as a nine year old child.
He had a promising sporting career with Shamrock Rovers and played on their U19 squad but he broke his leg and that put an end to his “career in football”, counsel said.
Counsel said that this offending presented itself to Jimoh after both he and his mother lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic and he was fulfilling his role “as the family’s breadwinner”.
“He fully acknowledges the gravity of his actions,” Mr Dwyer said before he added that his client is remorseful particularly for the impact his criminal offending has on his young daughter.
He handed in a letter that Jimoh had written to the court which counsel said said demonstrates that he has learned from his mistakes and has insights into his offending.