Alaska: A 33-year-old Nigerian-American man has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a scheme aimed at defrauding Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) program.

Adepoju Salako, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Anchorage to seven counts of wire fraud. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska, Salako attempted to illicitly redirect more than $22,000 in state oil wealth dividends by hijacking the online accounts of legitimate Alaska residents.

The Fraudulent Scheme

Court documents reveal that between January and February 2022, Salako acquired the personal identifying information of seven Alaska residents. He then accessed their established "myAlaska" online portals—the official platform used by residents to apply for the annual dividend.

Once inside the accounts, Salako altered the linked email addresses and modified the payment routing details to direct the funds into bank accounts under his control. To evade detection, he utilized a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to mask his location, successfully spoofing an Alaska-based IP address for six of the applications. However, the seventh application was transmitted from his actual Philadelphia IP address, which investigators later linked to his personal email logins.

The Alaska Department of Revenue’s security protocols detected the unauthorized activity and denied all seven applications, preventing a total loss of $22,988. The targeted amount was based on the 2022 dividend allocation of $3,284 per eligible resident.

Institutional Responses

Federal and state officials emphasized that the conviction underscores a zero-tolerance policy regarding the exploitation of state benefit programs.

• U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman praised the collaborative efforts of law enforcement, stating, "Mr. Salako spent considerable time planning and perpetrating his scheme to defraud the Alaska PFD. Thanks to the great work of the Alaska Department of Revenue and FBI, he didn’t succeed; but even attempting to defraud the PFD will not be tolerated and could result in federal prison."

• FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew Schlegel (Anchorage Field Office) noted that despite Salako's sophisticated efforts to mask his digital footprint, "he was identified through strong program safeguards and diligent investigative work."

• Scott Stair, Investigations Manager for the Alaska Department of Revenue’s Criminal Investigations Unit, reiterated the department's commitment to protecting public funds, warning that identity theft targeting the PFD will be aggressively prosecuted.

Concurrent Sentencing

The 18-month prison sentence will run concurrently with a separate six-and-a-half-year federal sentence Salako is currently serving. That prior conviction, handed down in Colorado, involved a multi-million dollar COVID-19 relief fund fraud and international money laundering scheme, which included a $2.5 million restitution order.