Green card fraud: US cracks down on senior official implicated in the scheme
By William Muthama, September 8, 2026A former senior US immigration official and an associate have been arrested in connection with a scheme involving the approval of green cards, family petitions and citizenship applications in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
According to a report by Fox News on Monday, September 7, 2026, Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu, a former Senior Immigration Services Officer with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Dallas, and Adeniyi Akeem Somoye were arrested on September 2.
The scheme reportedly operated between December 2019 and March 2026, with Ganiyu using his official position to approve or expedite immigration applications.
The applications included family petitions, permanent residence applications, petitions to remove conditions on residence and naturalisation applications.
Ganiyu reportedly bypassed interviews, supervisory reviews, jurisdictional restrictions, background checks and other standard USCIS procedures while processing certain applications.
More than Ksh124 million in payments
Financial records cited by prosecutors show that Ganiyu received about Ksh86.9 million through payment platforms including Zelle and Cash App, alongside approximately Ksh37.3 million in unexplained cash deposits.
The combined amount was close to Ksh124.3 million, with some payments corresponding with immigration approvals.
Ganiyu’s reported USCIS salary between 2020 and 2025 was approximately Ksh52.8 million, while investigators found no other reported employment during that period.
One of the cases involved Somoye’s naturalisation application.
Ganiyu reportedly assigned the application to himself and approved it on the same day in December 2022.
Prosecutors said Ganiyu later received approximately Ksh17.9 million from Somoye between May 2023 and January 2026, as well as payments from a company linked to him.
He also handled immigration benefits involving Somoye’s wife and child and transferred files from USCIS offices in Minneapolis, Charlotte and Houston so he could process them himself.
Investigation began in 2025
The investigation began in May 2025 after a complaint was submitted to the USCIS Office of Investigations.
Investigators later reviewed government email records and found information concerning payments made to Ganiyu.
Ganiyu joined USCIS in November 2018 and worked in Kansas, Texas and North Carolina before being promoted to Senior Immigration Services Officer in Dallas in April 2024.
According to prosecutors, Ganiyu resigned from USCIS in March, citing “personal reasons,” several months before his arrest.
“Selling immigration benefits for cash is a blatant abuse of public trust,” U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said in a statement. “When a federal official puts a price tag on lawful status, we will intervene immediately.”
The investigation was conducted by the USCIS Office of Investigations, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General and the FBI’s Dallas Field Office.