Former Senior USCIS Officer Lukman Ganiyu Charged in Multi-Year Immigration Bribery Scheme, Denies Wrongdoing
A former senior officer with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and an associate have been federally charged in connection with an alleged multi-year scheme in which the pair are accused of accepting close to $960,000 in exchange for unlawfully approving and expediting immigration applications.
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould announced that Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu, who held the position of Senior Immigration Services Officer at USCIS, and his associate, Adeniyi Akeem Somoye, were arrested on September 2 following a federal criminal complaint filed on August 31. Both men have been charged with conspiracy to receive illegal gratuities by a public official. “Selling immigration benefits for cash is a blatant abuse of public trust,” Raybould said in a statement announcing the charges, adding that his office would intervene immediately whenever a federal official attaches a price to lawful immigration status.
According to prosecutors, the alleged scheme ran from December 2019 through March 2026, during which Ganiyu is accused of using his position and access within USCIS to unlawfully approve and expedite a range of immigration applications, including Form I-485 applications for lawful permanent resident status, as well as petitions involving family sponsorship, removal of conditions on residency, and naturalisation. Investigators allege Ganiyu bypassed required interviews, supervisory review, jurisdictional limitations, background checks and standard USCIS processing protocols in order to fast-track approvals, and that many of the individuals who benefited were not actually eligible for the immigration status they received under federal law. Prosecutors say Ganiyu used his access to pull case files from USCIS field offices in Minneapolis, Charlotte and Houston in order to process the applications.
Investigators say the scheme was uncovered in part through extensive WhatsApp communications between Ganiyu, Somoye and applicants, involving thousands of messages and hundreds of calls. According to court filings, Ganiyu received approximately $138,392 from Somoye through bank transfers between May 2023 and January 2026, along with a further $21,900 from a company Somoye managed, while investigators separately identified around $287,830 in unexplained cash deposits into Ganiyu’s accounts and roughly $671,438 in direct payments made through Zelle, Cash App and similar platforms. Ganiyu resigned from USCIS on March 21, 2026, citing personal reasons, according to court records, with the alleged scheme continuing afterward, prosecutors say.
Following his arrest, federal prosecutors sought to keep Ganiyu in custody pending trial, citing his dual U.S.-Nigerian citizenship, history of international travel, foreign bank accounts and property ownership in Nigeria as flight risk factors. A U.S. magistrate judge ultimately ordered his release under a set of conditions, including GPS monitoring, travel restrictions and the surrender of both his U.S. and Nigerian passports. Ganiyu’s attorney, Alfonso Cabanas, told reporters that his client denies any criminal conduct and disputes the government’s characterisation of both the financial transactions and the immigration applications cited in the criminal complaint. Both Ganiyu and Somoye face up to five years in federal prison and fines of up to $250,000 if convicted.
FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge described the alleged manipulation of immigration decisions for personal gain as undermining the integrity of a process essential to national security. As of the time of reporting, the case remains at the charging stage, with both defendants presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law, and prosecutors have not indicated the total number of applicants or beneficiaries potentially connected to the alleged scheme.
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