Popular Nigerian fashion designer, Alade Vincent, popular as Alvince, was sentenced to four years and two months in federal prison by the United States District Court for the District of Maryland for wire fraud totaling $1.1 million.
According to court documents, Alvince was arrested by federal authorities on November 3, 2021 and appeared before the federal court, Baltimore, Maryland on the same day.
He was charged before Magistrate Judge Thomas DiGirolamo for aggravated identity theft and conspiring with others to commit wire fraud.
After the Department of Homeland Security Investigations indicted him, District Judge Stephanie Gallagher convicted Alvince on July 5, 2022, of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He quickly pled guilty to the charges.
“The defendant is hereby committed to the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons to be imprisoned for a term of 26 months as to Count 1 and 24 months as to Count 6 to run consecutively to the term imposed as to Count 1 for a total term of 50 months,” Ms Gallagher ruled.
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The judge also ordered the 35-year-old convict to pay $243,269.00 in restitution, with two years of supervised release, one year each for both charges, upon completing his jail term.
Alvince has designed several clothes for different top celebrities in Nigeria.
The court documents proved that he used the accurate identity information of individuals to open numerous bank accounts to obtain funds from companies and individuals, using fraudulent emails and phone calls in early 2019.
The fashion designer, who ranked among the top bespoke designers in Lagos, had conspired with other Nigerians, Hameed Adesokan, Adewumi Abioye, Lukman Salam, Akolade Ojo, and Damilola Lawal, to deceive his victims into sending funds to numerous bank accounts controlled by Mr Vincent.
The convict had obtained Delaware and North Carolina driver’s licences, providing personal information of two victims who resided in Nebraska and Missouri, respectively. Documents obtained from U.S. financial institutions also indicated that surveillance images of transactions matched that of Mr Vincent.
“Vincent then used the fake identification documents to open financial institution accounts and engaged in financial transactions involving those accounts, including attempting to deposit a fraudulent check, receiving proceeds from fraud, and disbursing proceeds of fraud through a variety of means to include, but not limited to, wire transfers, money order purchases, ATM and cash withdrawals, and casino activity,” said the special agent in charge, Darren R. Rusakiewicz.