United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould on Tuesday announced that a federal grand jury indicted 14 defendants, including allegedly corrupt insiders at major banking and telecommunications institutions, for allegedly orchestrating a sweeping nationwide bank‑account‑takeover conspiracy that targeted victims across the US.
‎‎Muhamed Dieye, 35, of Dallas, is the leader and chief architect of the alleged conspiracy. Mr Dieye and the 13 co-defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
‎‎A federal grand jury returned the 22-count indictment on August 26. It was unsealed Tuesday after the arrest of Terrence Dudley, a key co-conspirator in the case, in Florida.
‎‎According to the indictment, Mr Dieye possessed a spreadsheet containing detailed personal and business information for nearly 3,000 individual victims who collectively held over $373,000,000 across their bank accounts.
‎‎From July 2023 through November 2024, the defendants allegedly conspired to obtain personally identifying information, produce and traffic counterfeit identification documents, impersonate victims, manipulate victims’ phone lines through spoofing and SIM swapping, intercept security codes, and use corrupt insiders at banks and telecommunications companies to bypass authentication measures.
‎‎The indictment detailed how the accused allegedly accessed or withdrew funds from victim accounts at Truist Bank, Bank of America, First Bank, Woodforest National Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, and Charles Schwab. They conducted or attempted numerous fraudulent financial transactions, including an attempted $2,000,000 wire to the Emirates Islamic Bank and leveraged aliases referencing violent extremists and organized‑crime figures—such as OsamaCapone and OsamaBin57—while executing and coordinating complex fraud plays.
‎‎Mr Dieye was arrested after he allegedly attempted to flee the country.
‎‎According to the government’s motion to revoke release, Mr Dieye and his family vacated his Dallas residence, shipped most of his possessions to Kenya, and travelled to New York to board a one-way flight to Malaysia. Within hours of his flight, the US Attorney’s Office and Diplomatic Security Service secured an arrest warrant.
‎‎After scanning his boarding pass, Mr Dieye allegedly physically resisted arrest, attempted to destroy one of his cell phones containing evidence that he was researching how to buy a home in Malaysia, and had to be subdued by multiple federal agents.
‎‎While a Magistrate Court in the Eastern District of New York initially ordered Mr Dieye released on bond, the United States immediately sought and obtained an emergency stay of his release. Mr Dieye has since been transported to the Northern District of Texas, where he and several of his co-defendants remain in federal custody pending trial.
‎‎If convicted, the defendants face a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison on the bank fraud conspiracy charge and 20 years in federal prison on the wire fraud conspiracy charge. Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory sentence of two years’ imprisonment, consecutive to any other sentence imposed.
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