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U.S. Department of Justice PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Information, Wednesday, September 12, 2007
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Washington, D.C. - A former District of Columbia guard, Niyi Akinyosoye, also known as Rowland Olaniyi Akinyosoye, was sentenced today to eight months in jail for accepting bribes while working as a corrections officer for the D.C. Department of Corrections, announced U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
Akinyosoye, a 36-year-old citizen of Ghana, received the sentence in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Paul L. Friedman. On June 6, 2007, Akinyosoye pled guilty to one count of bribery. In sentencing the defendant, the Court also ordered that Akinyosoye be placed on a three-year term of supervised release following his release from prison and to pay a fine in the amount of $900.00, which represents the amount of money Akinyosoye accepted as bribes.
According to the government’s proffer of evidence at the time of the plea hearing, from at least June 2002 to July 2002, Akinyosoye, worked as a corrections officer for the Corrections Corporation of America which operates the Correctional Treatment Facility (“CTF”) on behalf of the D.C. Department of Corrections. Located at 1901 E Street, SE, Washington, D.C., CTF is a medium security facility for male and female inmates and serves as a resource for specialized confinement needs of the D.C. Department of Corrections. U.S. currency was considered contraband within D.C. Department of Corrections facilities, including the CTF when possessed by inmates because of its capacity to generate and facilitate illegal commerce and other improper activities within the facility. In addition, because of their capacity to facilitate unmonitored communications between inmates and others, communication devices such as two-way pagers were also considered contraband when possessed by inmates within the CTF. As a corrections officer, Akinyosoye had an official duty to prevent introduction into or possession of contraband upon the grounds of any penal institution of the District of Columbia.
On June 21, 2002, an undercover FBI agent (“UC”) gave Akinyosoye $500.00 in prerecorded U.S. currency and instructions for a two-way pager. Akinyosoye agreed to keep $300.00 and give $200.00 to an inmate who was secretly cooperating with the FBI. The cooperating inmate subsequently provided FBI agents with serial numbers from $100.00 in U.S. currency that matched prerecorded currency the UC had given to Akinyosoye on June 21, 2002. On July 3, 2002, the UC met with Akinyosoye and gave Akinyosoye $500.00 in prerecorded funds. Again, Akinyosoye agreed to keep $300.00 and give $200.00 to the cooperating inmate. Later, the cooperating inmate provided FBI agents with $200.00 in U.S. currency whose serial numbers matched prerecorded currency the UC had given to Akinyosoye on July 3, 2002. On July 16, 2002, Akinyosoye met with the UC and gave the UC a pager which had been previously introduced into the institution. The UC gave Akinyosoye $200.00 for transporting the pager.
On November 7, 2002, members of the FBI arrested Akinyosoye on charges related to his receipt of $900 in illicit bribes. When Akinyosoye failed to appear at a November 21, 2002, status hearing, Judge Friedman issued a bench warrant commanding the arrest of Akinyosoye. In May 2006, authorities from the Canada Border Services Agency contacted members of the U.S. Marshal’s Service notifying them that Akinyosoye had been arrested in Toronto, Canada, and was being held on immigration charges. The United States subsequently extradited Akinyosoye from Canada to the United States.
In announcing today’s sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor and Assistant Director in Charge Persichini commended the investigatory work of the FBI. In addition, they commended Legal Assistants Teesha Tobias and Lisa Robinson and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julianne Himelstein, who indicted the case, and Ronald W. Sharpe, who prosecuted it.