Oba Joseph Oloyede, the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, Nigeria, has been sentenced to 56 months in prison by a U.S. District Court for orchestrating a $4.2m COVID-19 fraud scheme.
The 62-year-old traditional ruler, a dual U.S. and Nigerian citizen, was convicted by the U.S. District Court for exploiting emergency relief programs designed to support businesses during the pandemic.
Presiding Judge Christopher A Boyko, in his ruling on Tuesday, ruled that the monarch must “serve three years of supervised release after imprisonment and pay $4,408,543.38 in restitution.
“He also forfeited his Medina home on Foote Road, which he had acquired with proceeds of the scheme, and an additional $96,006.89 in fraud proceeds investigators had seized.”
This comes after the U.S Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had launched a probe into Oloyede’s $4.2M COVID-19 fraud scheme.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, in a statement, had said Oloyede led a conspiracy to exploit COVID-19 emergency loan programmes created for struggling businesses.
According to the statement, between April 2020 and February 2022, Oloyede, alongside accomplice Edward Oluwasanmi, a Nigerian pastor, submitted 38 falsified applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) under the U.S. CARES Act.
Operating multiple businesses and a nonprofit, Oloyede was said to have used his role as a tax preparer to file documents, securing $1.7 million for his entities and $1.2 million for Oluwasanmi’s.
The statement reads in part: “From about April 2020 to February 2022, Oloyede and his co-conspirator, Edward Oluwasanmi, conspired to submit fraudulent applications for loans that were made available through the U.S. Small Business Association (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Both defendants used their businesses to submit loan applications using false information.
“They obtained approximately $1.2 million in SBA funds for Oluwasanmi’s entities and $1.7 million for Oloyede’s entities.
“Oloyede submitted fraudulent PPP and EIDL applications in the names of some of his clients and their businesses.
“In exchange, Oloyede would receive 15-20% of their loans as the fee, or kickback, for obtaining the loans for them, without reporting this income to the IRS on his own tax returns.
“Investigators learned that the defendant used funds obtained from these loans to acquire land and build a home and purchase a luxury vehicle.”
Recall also that in April, the duo pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax fraud charges linked to a pandemic relief scam that siphoned over $4.2m in federal stimulus funds.
