During 20 years as a private security guard at Newark Liberty International Airport, a man known as Jerry Thomas passed multiple inquiries into his background — by his employer, by the state and by the federal government.
But none of those turned up what authorities alleged Monday: The longtime security supervisor, a 54-year-old Nigerian national who was in the country illegally, had been using the identity of a Queens man who was murdered two decades ago.
The arrest of Thomas, whose real name is Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole, on charges of identity theft raised questions about the thoroughness of the background checks required of airport security personnel, the gatekeepers of the nation’s airports. Several agencies and the private company responsible for vetting Oyewole described an unusual set of circumstances that allowed him to slip through the screening process, exposing its limitations.
In response, officials at the Port Authority, which operates the airport, said they would “take every legally permissible step to recheck” the employees of the security company Oyewole worked for, FJC Security Services.
Oyewole, described as an employee with an unblemished record, seemed to have successfully lived for two decades under the identity of Jerry Thomas, who was shot to death in a YMCA in Queens in 1992. That is the same year Oyewole was hired at Newark under Thomas’ name, according to authorities and a spokesman for FJC.
Oyewole had entered the country illegally three years earlier, said Steve Coleman, a Port Authority spokesman.
Investigators were trying to learn how Oyewole allegedly stole Thomas’ identity, Coleman said. Neither Oyewole nor a representative could be reached Monday.
Oyewole was a security supervisor in charge of approximately 30 guards, Coleman said. His clearance allowed him access to secure areas throughout the airport, although he still had to pass through metal detectors, a Transportation Security Administration official said.
Oyewole had presented to his employer and several agencies what appeared to be Thomas’ Social Security card and his birth certificate, several officials said. And even though Oyewole’s fingerprints were examined by both the New Jersey State Police and the Customs and Border Protection, those prints never raised a red flag because neither Thomas nor Oyewole had previously been fingerprinted, spokesmen for those agencies said.
“His fingerprints got matched up to the other man’s identity,” said Anthony L. Bucci, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection. The agency gave Oyewole clearance for inspection areas where international passengers are screened.
“I’m sure the different agencies are going to look at the system and see how something like this doesn’t happen again,” Bucci said.
Charles Slepian, a security expert and founder of the Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center, said it was unusual that there was no record of either Thomas’ or Oyewole’s fingerprints in state or federal databases.
“The series of coincidences boggles the mind,” he said, noting that both the murder and Oyewole’s hiring under the victim’s name date back to the same year, 1992. The details surrounding the murder and any subsequent investigation were unclear on Monday. The Queens District Attorney’s Office did not return a message.
Slepian said the incident points out a potential vulnerability in the post-9/11 private security apparatus: Guards who have worked for security companies for more than a decade were likely hired when screening processes were much more limited, he said. “This is an example of what can happen when you don’t screen your personnel very well,” he said.
The Port Authority awarded FJC a four-year, $145 million contract that expires next year to provide security services at more than a dozen major facilities. The unarmed guards supplement the agency’s armed police force.
The Port Authority relies on FJC to screen its own employees and provide proof that the necessary background checks have been conducted, Coleman said.
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