Immigration agent issued green cards without proper background checks in exchange for bribes

A senior USCIS official and his accountant are accused of accepting nearly $960,000 in bribes to expedite and approve citizenship applications, according to New York Post.

According to investigators, the scheme was exposed through WhatsApp correspondence between former senior US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) official Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu, his alleged accomplice Adeniyi Akim Somoya, and citizenship applicants.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas, both defendants bypassed standard procedures by referring paying applicants directly to Ganiy, thereby bypassing key stages of immigration screening, including criminal background checks.

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According to the prosecution, Ganiyu effectively “intercepted” applications within the USCIS system, gained control over the cases, and expedited their processing for money.

In particular, he expedited the citizenship process for his alleged accomplice, Somoya, and then approved residence permits for his wife and child.

Investigators allege that Ganiyu, bypassing local leaders and approving decisions himself when removing cases from field offices in Minneapolis, Charlotte, and Houston.

According to prosecutors and court documents, from December 2019 to March 2026, Ganiyu received approximately $671,438 through the payment services Zelle and Cash App, as well as $287,830 in cash deposited in a manner intended to conceal the source of funds received from citizenship applicants.

Somoya, who acted as the financial coordinator, according to investigators, facilitated the turnover of approximately $1,7 million through bank transfers, Zelle, and Cash App. He retained a portion of these funds as a commission. He also contributed $449,010 in cash.

Investigators note that the volume of financial transactions significantly exceeds the official incomes of the defendants: Ganiyu earned $67,732 per year as a civil servant, while Somoya declared only $7,506 in legal income per year.

During the investigation, Ganiyu was not immediately fired. He submitted a resignation from USCIS "for personal reasons" in March 2026—several months before his arrest by federal authorities.

The case file indicates that Ganiyu and Somoya regularly transferred money back and forth with the applicants, which, according to investigators, allowed them to artificially inflate the overall volume of transactions and conceal the nature of the transactions.

According to the prosecutor's office, most of the applicants involved in the scheme were from African countries.

"Selling immigration benefits for money is a gross abuse of the public trust," said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould. "When a federal official puts a price on legal status, we intervene immediately."

Ganiyu and Somoya are charged with conspiracy to receive unlawful gratuities from a public official.

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The first court hearings in the case took place on September 2. Each defendant faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The USCIS Investigative Service, the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI's Dallas Field Office investigated the accomplice's schemes. The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham of the Fraud Section.

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