Fake renewable fuel importer sentenced to 40 months’ imprisonment for fake RINs

In Washington, Ijomah Oputa, 54, of Los Angeles, California, pleaded guilty and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden to 40 months’ imprisonment for wire fraud in connection with the generation and sale of fraudulent renewable fuel credits, from 2017 through 2021.

Oputa created a fake renewable fuel importing company and fraudulently generated RINs on volumes of biofuel that he claimed to have imported from foreign biofuel producers. No such imports had actually occurred. Oputa generated false documentation of the alleged imports, including fake classified correspondence with a branch of the United States military. He then sold the fraudulent RINs to a RIN trading company for approximately $426,000, which he deposited in a bank account he opened using a stolen identity. Judge McFadden also ordered restitution in the amount of approximately $462,200 to ACT Fuels and $33,600 to RIN Alliance, two of the victims of the wire fraud scheme.