Federal prosecutors said two men pleaded guilty Friday to their involvement in a multimillion-dollar bank fraud scheme.
Victor Kolawole, 26, of Brockton, and Keith Wainaina, 24, of Lowell, have pled guilty to bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to a statement from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. They are set to be sentenced on July 23 and September 9, respectively.
Kolawole and Wainaina were detained in July 2025 alongside four other individuals, including Phalentz Vernot, who pled guilty in December 2025 and is set to be sentenced on July 22. They started their conspiracy to swindle local banks in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island about December 2022, according to prosecutors.
Vernot obtained identifying information about multiple bank customers, including their names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and account numbers. According to the United States Attorney’s Office, he and Wainaina then hired persons to impersonate clients in order to fraudulently extract the funds.
The two guys drove the impostors to the banks and created bogus identification documents using the customers’ names and images. According to authorities, they used these fraudulent documents to withdraw substantial quantities of money from the accounts as cashier’s checks.
The checks were subsequently placed into bank accounts controlled by Kolawole and Wainaina, who used the monies to purchase more cashier’s checks payable to Vernot, according to the US Attorney’s Office. Vernot then compensated the imposters who pretended to be customers, as well as bank insiders who helped them carry out their operation by purposefully circumventing customer verification procedures.
Wainaina deposited or attempted to deposit more than $762,000 in fraudulently obtained cashier’s checks, prosecutors claimed. Kolawole deposited almost $373,000 in fraudulently obtained cashier’s checks.
According to prosecutors, both men face up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and fines of $1 million or twice their gross gain or loss for bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. For the money laundering conspiracy charge, they face up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $500,000 or twice the amount involved in the laundering.
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