Former USCIS official charged in $960K citizenship bribery scheme

A former senior U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) official, Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu, and his financial accomplice, Adeniyi Akeem Somoye, have been charged in a federal bribery scheme. Prosecutors allege that between December 2019 and March 2026, the pair accepted nearly $960,000 in exchange for manipulating and expediting immigration benefit applications, including citizenship cases.

According to court documents, Ganiyu allegedly bypassed standard procedures by skipping criminal background checks and interviews for applicants who paid bribes via Zelle and Cash App. He is accused of altering the USCIS system to fast-track applications and rerouting cases from field offices in Minneapolis, Charlotte, and Houston to approve them himself. The scheme also allegedly included fast-tracking citizenship for Somoye and residency applications for Somoye’s wife and child.

Somoye allegedly acted as a financial intermediary, processing approximately $1.7 million in transfers and depositing significant amounts of cash to conceal the source of the funds. Both men face federal charges for conspiracy to receive illegal gratuities, which carry a potential maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.