French national and former Fremont resident sentenced for $1.8M mail fraud, identity theft
A French national and former Fremont resident was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Monday for mail fraud and identity theft, US Attorney Philip Talbert announced.
Gabriel Adrien Lobe Diop, 35, set up a scheme to fraudulently get millions of dollars of unclaimed property division funds from the California State Controller's Office, according to the US Department of Justice.
Diop assumed the identities of people who had significant amounts of unclaimed property and then submitted applications to get the property. Diop used post office boxes, mail forwarding requests, counterfeit notary stamps, and falsified driver licenses from numerous states to conceal his scheme, prosecutors said.
Beginning in 2019, he tried to steal about $9 million from the unclaimed property division and actually did obtain at least $1.8 million before the feds caught on. Diop has been ordered to pay that amount in restitution.
Prosecutors said Diop spent the money on luxury goods, property and consumer electronics.
In 2021, Diop was living in Agoura Hills and federal agents executed a search warrant at his residence. Law enforcement found counterfeit stamps for fake notarizations, 12 falsified driver licenses, and bank cards and checkbooks in the names of people whose identities he stole.
In total, Diop was found guilty of nine counts of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
