Nigerian Immigrant Guilty in HELOC Scam

A man responsible for digging up Social Security numbers and other personal data that was used to siphon millions of phony home equity lines of credit from credit unions and banks was convicted on bank fraud charges last week. Yomi Jagunna, a 44-year-old Nigerian immigrant, is one of a handful of small players to plead guilty in this international scheme, which stole as much as $5 million from U.S. credit unions and banks and wired the proceeds overseas, beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. Jagunna, who held back tears during last week's plea hearing, told authorities he set up a sham collection agency to gain access to a commercial database. He admitted selling 39 Social Security numbers for $30 a piece, but authorities said he had access to a database of more than 100,000 Social Security numbers. Jagunna is one of 17 individuals charged in the nationwide HELOC scheme that fooled credit union and bank employees into transferring funds to accounts in at least seven countries, authorities said.