Former USCIS official, accomplice charged in alleged $960K citizenship bribery scheme
A former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer and his financial associate were arrested Wednesday on federal bribery charges, accused of running a multi-year scheme that netted nearly $960,000 in exchange for manipulating immigration cases, according to prosecutors in the Northern District of Texas.
Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu and Adeniyi Akeem Somoye face a single count of conspiracy to receive illegal gratuities by a public official. Federal investigators allege the pair operated from December 2019 through March 2026, steering applicants around background checks, interviews and standard processing protocols in field offices across Minneapolis, Charlotte and Houston.
Prosecutors say Ganiyu rerouted cases away from local supervisors so he could approve them personally, and that he fast-tracked citizenship for Somoye before clearing residency applications for Somoye’s wife and child. Thousands of WhatsApp messages and hundreds of phone calls between the defendants and applicants form the backbone of the complaint, court records show.
Financially, Ganiyu received roughly $671,438 through Zelle and Cash App and another $287,830 in cash deposits designed to conceal the payments’ source. Somoye, acting as intermediary, processed about $1.7 million in transfers and deposited $449,010 in cash, pocketing a portion, prosecutors allege. The two routinely exchanged money back and forth with applicants, according to the filing.
Most of the citizenship cases involved applicants from African nations. Ganiyu resigned from USCIS in March, citing personal reasons, several months before his arrest.
“Selling immigration benefits for cash is a blatant abuse of public trust,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould. “When a federal official puts a price tag on lawful status, we will intervene immediately.”
Each defendant faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
