Former USCIS Senior Immigration Services Officer Lukman Ganiyu charged in $960,000 bribery scheme to fast-track green cards, citizenship

On August 31, 2026, federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas filed a criminal complaint charging former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Senior Immigration Services Officer Lukman Owolabi Ganiyu and an associate, Adeniyi Akeem Somoye, with conspiracy to receive illegal gratuities by a public official. Prosecutors allege that between December 2019 and March 2026, Ganiyu used his USCIS access to reroute immigration applications — including Forms I-130 (petition for alien relative), I-485 (adjustment of status), I-751 (removal of conditions on residence), and N-400 (naturalization) — from USCIS field offices in Minneapolis, Charlotte, and Houston, outside his own jurisdiction, bypassing required interviews, background checks, and supervisory review to approve them himself in exchange for money.

According to an affidavit obtained by Newsweek, Ganiyu joined USCIS in November 2018 and was promoted to Senior Immigration Services Officer in a USCIS office in Dallas in April 2024. Investigators allege Ganiyu and Somoye together collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from applicants — including roughly $671,438 to Ganiyu through Zelle and Cash App and $287,830 in cash deposits prosecutors say were structured to conceal the money's source — funneled in part through Somoye, who allegedly kept a portion of the payments for himself. Prosecutors allege Ganiyu also assigned himself Somoye's own naturalization application and approved it the same day in December 2022, and later approved residency applications for Somoye's wife and child.

U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said "selling immigration benefits for cash is a blatant abuse of public trust" and that "public corruption will never be tolerated in the Northern District of Texas." Ganiyu resigned from USCIS on March 21, 2026, citing personal reasons, several months before his arrest on September 2, 2026. Ganiyu's attorney told Newsweek that Ganiyu "denies any criminal conduct" and disputes the government's characterization of the financial transactions and applications cited in the complaint. Each defendant faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted; a criminal complaint is a formal accusation, and both defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.