Press Release

Chicago Man Pleads Guilty in Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud Targeting United States Service Members

Thursday, August 28, 2025

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Chicago, Ill., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to fraud offenses targeting United States service members.

Dwayne D. Adams, 33, pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Willie Epps, Jr., to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud.

Adams conspired with others that sought to defraud United States military service men and women through the use of social media. Adams is the third and final defendant to enter a guilty plea for his role in defrauding active service members of the United States military.

According to the plea agreement, Adams conspired with others that employed a scheme to defraud United States military service men and women. Service members who had recently joined the United States military were contacted through various social media platforms. Upon communicating with each military member, a person within the conspiracy would use the information obtained from the social media platform and then contact the service member claiming to be a senior military official. In their fake role of a senior military member, Adams and others would tell each service member that they were receiving the wrong salary, and they were owed more money than they were being paid. Adams and others involved in the scheme advised each victim that they needed to return their prior pay using a cash application. Adams and others told the victims that they would receive a higher salary rate from the military once they returned their prior pay. If a service member followed these instructions, the members of this scheme would take the monies transferred and would never return any monies to the victim. Adams conspired with others in this scheme by taking the cash application transfers and conducted financial transactions that transferred the victim’s money to accounts that were accessed by all members of the scheme.

Under federal statutes, Adams is subject to a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation