ANCHORAGE, Alaska (WHTM) — A Pennsylvania man will spend time in a federal prison after authorities say he defrauded Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend program.

Adepoju Babatunde Salako, 33, of Philadelphia, was sentenced this week to a year and a half in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to seven federal wire fraud charges.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska, Salako filed seven applications to the Alaska Department of Revenue using the identities of Alaskans to intercept their Permanent Fund Dividends in 2022.

The Alaska Permanent Fund is a fund created by the state from proceeds from the oil industry. Full-time residents of Alaska are eligible for a dividend payment from the fund each year.

Salako, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, had never been to Alaska until his sentencing this week.

“The Alaska PFD program is intended to benefit current and future generations of eligible Alaskans, not criminals like Salako who seek to exploit the program through fraud and identity theft,” said Matthew Schlegel, special agent in charge of the FBI Anchorage Field Office. “Despite efforts to mask his identity, Salako was identified through strong program safeguards and diligent investigative work in partnership with the Alaska Department of Revenue.

“This sentence reflects our commitment to safeguarding the integrity of government programs and holding fraudsters accountable for their crimes, regardless of where they reside,” he added.

He had gained control of at least seven myAlaska accounts which residents use to apply for their PFD.

For six of the seven fraudulent applications he filed, he used a VPN purporting to be in Alaska. The seventh was filed from an IP address in Philadelphia County.

Each account was changed to point to an email account he owned and their bank information was changed to accounts he controlled.

All seven applications were deemed to be fraudulent and were denied. In 2022, the PFD was $3,284 so, if each application had been successful, Salako would have received $22,988.

“Mr. Salako spent considerable time planning and perpetrating his scheme to defraud the Alaska PFD,” said U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman for the District of Alaska. “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.”

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Salako’s sentence will run concurrent to a separate sentence in a COVID relief fund and international money laundering case in Colorado.

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