A federal grand jury has indicted 14 people in a nationwide bank account takeover conspiracy that Social Security’s inspector general ties to $370 million. Prosecutors say the group posed as customers, hijacked phone lines and used bank and phone-company insiders to get into accounts at six financial institutions. The charges were announced Nov. 3 by the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General, and the defendants have not been convicted.
The case is in the Northern District of Texas, where a 22-count indictment was returned on Aug. 26 and unsealed after arrests. It charges conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The scheme allegedly ran from July 2023 through November 2024, according to the release.
The number that matters for ordinary savers is not the arrests but the target list. Prosecutors say the alleged leader kept a spreadsheet with information on nearly 3,000 people, and those people together held more than $373 million in bank accounts. Anyone with a large balance, a cellphone number tied to their bank logins, or a brokerage account falls into the kind of customer the group allegedly went after.
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How did the group allegedly get into accounts?
The release describes a chain of steps rather than a single trick. Conspirators allegedly gathered personal information, made counterfeit identification documents and impersonated account holders. They also used spoofing and SIM swapping, which means getting a phone carrier to move a customer’s number to a phone the thief controls, so text-message security codes land with the wrong person.
The last link was people on the inside. Prosecutors say the group used corrupt insiders at banks and telecommunications companies to get around the checks that normally stop a stranger from taking over an account. Nothing in the release says any customer did anything wrong, and a careful customer could not have seen the insider help coming.
Which banks and which defendants are named?
The release says the conspirators accessed or withdrew funds at Truist Bank, Bank of America, First Bank, Woodforest National Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank and Charles Schwab. In one instance they allegedly tried to send a $2 million wire to Emirates Islamic Bank. The announcement does not say how much money was actually taken, and the $370 million figure describes the size of the conspiracy, not a confirmed loss.
Prosecutors name Muhamed Dieye, 35, of Dallas, as the leader and chief architect. Also charged are Terrence Dudley, Brian Faceman, Maurice Rashad McDuffie, Saad Nashat Botros, Sammed Kweku Okyne, Renaldo Santez Gaines, Alphonso Brndon Seke-Horton, Terry Leon Daniels Jr., Jamel Allen Small, Kemar Fitzroy Needham, Kevin Brandon Flores Cazares, Dylon Amari Ruby, Courtney Jane Sutton and a defendant identified only by initials, C.S.
Most defendants are listed with one or more aliases next to their legal names, among them “MJ,” “Medici” and “The Wizard 302.” Prosecutors say the spreadsheet in Dieye’s possession held personal and business information on the nearly 3,000 people. The release gives home cities only for Dieye, who is from Dallas, and for Faceman, who was arrested in Florida.
What happened when agents moved in?
Agents arrested Dieye at New York’s JFK Airport on a one-way flight to Malaysia, according to the release and FOX 4 in Dallas. Prosecutors say his family had left his Dallas home and most of his belongings had been shipped to Kenya. He allegedly resisted arrest and tried to destroy a phone. A federal magistrate in New York first ordered him released on bond, but the government won an emergency stay, and he is now in custody in Texas pending trial.
U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said the defendants “are charged with targeting the life savings of thousands of Americans.” The case was led by the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, with help from the Secret Service, the Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and Social Security’s inspector general, among others. If convicted, the bank fraud conspiracy count carries up to 30 years in prison, the wire fraud conspiracy count up to 20 years, and aggravated identity theft a mandatory two years on top.
What should account holders do while the case moves forward?
The release offers no instructions for victims, and it does not say whether the government has notified the roughly 3,000 people on the spreadsheet. Anyone who finds an unexplained withdrawal, a phone that suddenly loses service, or a surprise text about a changed number should call the bank and the phone carrier right away. The Federal Trade Commission runs IdentityTheft.gov, where people can report identity theft and get a step-by-step recovery plan.
For everyone else, the case shows why a text-message code is a weak lock when a carrier account can be taken over. A separate passcode on the phone account, alerts on every withdrawal and a credit freeze all make a takeover harder, and none of them depend on who is working inside a bank or a phone company. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the alleged scheme ended in November 2024, so the open question is how many accounts it touched before then.
Is a text-message code the only lock on your bank account?
In this case, prosecutors say thieves did not need a customer’s password when they could take over a phone line and bank insiders waved them through. Someone holding a large balance, an IRA or a brokerage account can lose it before a single alert is read.
Scam-Proof Your Accounts in a Weekend lays out ten moves in the order that protects the most money first, including how to freeze your credit at all three bureaus, free by federal law, and how to lock your bank logins with two-step login, alerts and a verbal password. It ends with the first-hour plan if a scam gets through anyway.
Get the weekend checklist for locking your bank logins and credit against account takeovers →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
