A former senior immigration officer is facing federal charges after prosecutors say he turned his government job into a cash-for-approvals business. His name is Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu, and he used to work as a Senior Immigration Services Officer with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He was arrested in Dallas on September 2, 2026, along with his alleged financial partner, Adeniyi Akeem Somoye.
Federal prosecutors from the Northern District of Texas say the two ran a multi-year scheme where Ganiyu took payments in exchange for pushing through immigration applications outside the normal process. Together, they’re accused of pulling in close to $960,000.
What the Scheme Allegedly Looked Like
According to a federal criminal complaint filed on August 31, Ganiyu used his position at USCIS to approve immigration applications in exchange for money between December 2019 and March 2026. That’s over six years of alleged misconduct.
The applications weren’t just one type either. Investigators say they included Form I-485 applications for green cards, Form I-130 petitions for family members, Form I-751 petitions to remove conditions on residency, and Form N-400 naturalization applications. So basically, a good chunk of the major immigration benefit categories.
What makes this stand out is how he allegedly did it. Court documents say Ganiyu pulled files directly from field offices in Minneapolis, Charlotte, and Houston through the agency’s electronic system, then routed those cases through himself. That let him skip local supervisor reviews, required interviews, and background checks that would normally catch something like this.
Following the Money
The numbers here are honestly pretty striking for a government salary. An affidavit obtained by Newsweek says investigators found around $287,830 in unexplained cash deposits into Ganiyu’s accounts, plus roughly $671,438 more through Zelle, Cash App, and similar payment apps. Some of those payments reportedly line up directly with USCIS applicants.
For comparison, Ganiyu’s actual government salary was about $407,838 total between 2020 and 2025, and he had no other reported job during that time. Somoye, meanwhile, reported only about $7,506 a year in legitimate wages, but investigators say he processed roughly $1.7 million in transactions and took a cut as his part of the deal.
Investigators also found extensive WhatsApp messages between Ganiyu, Somoye, and the applicants whose cases they allegedly handled, thousands of messages and hundreds of phone calls, according to the complaint.
How It Came Apart
The whole thing started unraveling after USCIS’s Office of Investigations got a tip in May 2025, saying Ganiyu was selecting and processing certain applicants outside normal agency policy. As the scrutiny picked up, Ganiyu resigned from USCIS in March 2026, citing personal reasons. That was months before federal agents actually showed up to make the arrest.
Both men are charged with conspiracy to receive illegal gratuities by a public official. They made their initial court appearances on September 2 in front of a U.S. Magistrate Judge. If convicted, each faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
A Blunt Message From Prosecutors
U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould didn’t hold back when announcing the charges. He said selling immigration benefits for cash is a blatant abuse of public trust, and that when a federal official puts a price tag on lawful status, his office will step in right away.
The case was investigated by the USCIS Office of Investigations, the DHS Office of Inspector General, and the FBI’s Dallas Field Office, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham from the Fraud section handling the prosecution. Right now, the case is still pending, and both men are presumed innocent unless proven otherwise in court.