The Maryland Attorney General announced in the following press release that Parkville resident Michael C. Okolo has been charged with obstruction of justice and fabricating physical evidence.
Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced today the filing of a criminal information in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County charging Michael C. Okolo, 68, of Parkville with obstruction of justice and fabricating physical evidence.
This is the fourth time Okolo has been charged with a crime since September 2024.
- In September 2024, the Baltimore County grand jury handed down an indictment charging Okolo with felony theft and insurance fraud. In that case, it is alleged that a client gave Okolo two partially completed checks totaling $36,500 in 2016 to pay for a life insurance policy and an annuity contract.
Instead of forwarding the payments to the insurance company, Okolo made the checks payable to his business, deposited the checks in his business account, and spent the money on personal and business expenses.
It is alleged in the new charges that Okolo fabricated a “letter of instruction” purportedly written and signed by the client on February 20, 2016, that instructs Okolo to deposit the checks in Okolo’s bank account while Okolo looked for the best insurance and annuity for the client.
Okolo gave the letter to his attorney who, on May 1, disclosed the letter to the State so that it could be admitted in evidence at Okolo’s upcoming trial.
As alleged in the criminal information, the letter of instruction was fabricated. The client did not write, authorize, or sign the letter. The signature on the “letter of instruction” was cut and pasted by Okolo, without authorization, from a genuine letter that the client had sent to Okolo in April 2017, more than a year after the date on the “letter of instruction.”
Moreover, in a May 2017 letter to the Maryland Insurance Administration, Okolo had denied that there was any written documentation of the client’s alleged instruction to deposit the checks in Okolo’s accounts.
Okolo has two other pending cases. In one, Okolo is charged with numerous counts of acting as an insurance agent without a license after he allegedly continued to solicit and sell insurance products after the Maryland Insurance Administration revoked his license.
In the other, Okolo is charged with theft of property with a value of $100,000 or more, after cashing a check given to him by a client for a “real estate investment,” and spending the funds on his own personal and business expenses having nothing to do with real estate. The Fraud and Corruption Unit of the Attorney General’s Criminal Division is prosecuting all four cases.
An initial appearance has not been scheduled in the new case. Okolo’s other cases are scheduled for trial on September 22, October 20, and December 1 in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County.
Criminal charging documents are merely accusations of wrongdoing, and a defendant is presumed innocent until the State proves the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
