BALTIMORE, MD—The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that a Baltimore man has pleaded guilty to access device fraud and aggravated identity theft in a tax refund scam.

Dolapo Lawal, 33, has admitted to a scheme that involved using the identities of elderly victims to receive fraudulent tax refunds, which he then used to pay off personal credit card debt and make payments on his Mercedes S-class sedan.

According to prosecutors, Lawal received over $200,000 in fraudulent tax refunds in 2021 and then attempted to withdraw more than $3 million using 24 debit cards that were linked to bank accounts he had opened in the victims’ names.

Lawal was stopped by police in Baltimore on April 8, 2022, and the search of his car revealed the debit cards and cash. He admitted to officers that he had used the cards to withdraw more than $80,000 and that he planned to use the money for personal purchases.

In a separate incident on June 21, 2023, law enforcement searched Lawal’s home and recovered over 300 additional debit cards that were linked to bank accounts that he had opened using the victims’ names. Many of these tax returns had been filed after Lawal was stopped by police in April 2022.

The total amount of money that Lawal stole in this scheme is estimated to be over $3 million. He faces a maximum of ten years in prison for access device fraud and a minimum mandatory sentence of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft.

This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.

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