A former senior U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officer and an associate who managed the proceeds are accused of taking nearly $960,000 in bribes to manipulate and fast-track immigration applications, prosecutors said Friday.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould announced the arrests of Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu, a Nigerian-American who served as a senior immigration services officer with USCIS, and Adeniyi Akeem Somoye, described in court documents as his financial accomplice. A federal criminal complaint filed August 31 charges both men with conspiracy to receive illegal gratuities by a public official. Federal agents arrested them September 2.
“Selling immigration benefits for cash is a blatant abuse of public trust,” Raybould said. “When a federal official puts a price tag on lawful status, we will intervene immediately.”
What We Know So Far
According to court documents reviewed by the New York Post, Ganiyu personally collected roughly $671,438 through Zelle and Cash App transfers between December 2019 and March 2026, along with an additional $287,830 in cash deposits prosecutors say were structured to obscure the money’s origin, bringing his total take close to the $960,000 figure cited by prosecutors. Somoye, acting as a financial manager for the scheme, accumulated roughly $1.7 million in total transfer volume tied to applicants, a figure that reflects repeated back and forth movement of funds through bank transfers, Zelle and Cash App rather than a straightforward net profit, according to the complaint. Somoye separately deposited $449,010 in cash. Prosecutors said Somoye skimmed a portion of applicants’ bribe payments for himself as compensation for his role.
The scale of the alleged payments dwarfed both men’s legitimate reported income. Ganiyu earned an annual government salary of $67,732, while Somoye reported just $7,506 in legitimate yearly wages, according to prosecutors.
The Justice Department said Ganiyu used his official position to approve a range of immigration applications, including Form I-130 petitions for alien relatives, I-485 applications to register permanent residence or adjust status, I-751 petitions to remove conditions on residence, and N-400 naturalization applications, in exchange for payment. Investigators allege Ganiyu bypassed required interviews, supervisory review, jurisdictional limitations, background checks and standard USCIS processing protocols to expedite approvals for applicants, many of whom were not eligible under federal law. According to the New York Post’s review of the complaint, Ganiyu specifically hijacked case files from USCIS field offices in Minneapolis, Charlotte and Houston, circumventing local supervisors to approve applications himself, and used his access to fast-track citizenship for Somoye before approving residency applications for Somoye’s wife and child.
Investigators identified extensive WhatsApp communications between Ganiyu, Somoye and numerous applicants, including thousands of messages and hundreds of calls documented during the period covered by the charges. Most of the citizenship applications the two men handled came from applicants originating in African countries, according to prosecutors.
As the investigation progressed, Ganiyu was not immediately terminated from his position. Instead, he resigned from USCIS in March 2026, citing personal reasons, just months before federal authorities moved to arrest him, according to the New York Post’s reporting on the case.
What Authorities Are Saying
FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock said the alleged manipulation of immigration decisions for personal gain undermines the integrity of a process essential to national security, adding that the FBI and its law enforcement partners remain committed to holding accountable anyone who abuses a position of public trust.
Why This Matters
The case highlights a specific vulnerability within the U.S. immigration system: the ability of a single insider with sufficient system access to bypass multiple layers of standard review, including background checks, across field offices in different states. Ganiyu’s alleged ability to pull case files from Minneapolis, Charlotte and Houston into his own queue suggests gaps in oversight of how USCIS officers can access and act on applications outside their assigned jurisdiction, a detail likely to draw scrutiny of internal USCIS controls going forward.
The concentration of affected applicants from African countries adds a dimension of concern about targeted exploitation within immigrant communities that may already face additional barriers or unfamiliarity navigating the U.S. immigration system, potentially making them more vulnerable to being approached with this kind of scheme. Ganiyu’s quiet resignation before his arrest also raises questions about whether internal USCIS disciplinary or oversight processes identified any warning signs before federal prosecutors intervened.
What Happens Next
Ganiyu and Somoye made their initial court appearances September 2 before a U.S. magistrate judge. Each defendant faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted. The case remains under investigation by USCIS’s Office of Investigations, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, and the FBI’s Dallas Field Office, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham of the Fraud Section prosecuting.
As is standard, prosecutors noted that a criminal complaint is merely an allegation, and both defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court. Given the volume of documented communications and financial records cited in the complaint, additional details are likely to emerge as the case proceeds toward trial or potential plea negotiations.
Reporting drawn from the U.S. Department of Justice and the New York Post
