A United States District Judge, Christopher Boyko, on Tuesday, sentenced the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, Oba Joseph Oloyede, to 56 months in prison over a $4.2m COVID-19 relief fund fraud.
A statement of the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio, indicated that Oloyede was convicted of creating and leading a scheme that defrauded more than $4.2m from federal loan and grant programmes designed to support small businesses that suffered economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The monarch pleaded guilty to a six-count charge bordering on conspiracy to commit wire fraud, engaging in monetary transactions with criminally derived property, and making and subscribing a false tax return.
Oloyede is a dual Nigerian and American citizen residing in Medina, Ohio.
As part of his sentence, Oloyede was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay $4,408,543.38 in restitution.
He forfeited his Medina home on Foote Road, acquired with proceeds of the scheme, as well as $96,006.89 in fraud proceeds seized by investigators.
Court documents showed that between April 2020 and February 2022, Oloyede conspired with 62-year-old Edward Oluwasanmi of Willoughby to submit fraudulent applications for loans made available through the U.S. Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
The loans, including the Paycheck Protection Programme and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan scheme, were intended to help small businesses survive financial shocks caused by the pandemic.
Investigations revealed that Oloyede, who operated as a tax preparer and owned five businesses and one nonprofit, worked with Oluwasanmi, his tax client, who also owned three businesses in Ohio.
Using these entities, both men submitted multiple fraudulent loan applications with falsified information.
Their scheme secured about $1.2m for Oluwasanmi’s businesses and $1.7m for Oloyede’s entities.
In addition, Oloyede filed fraudulent PPP and EIDL applications in the names of some of his tax clients, collecting kickbacks of between 15 and 20 per cent of the loans obtained. These payments were never declared to the Internal Revenue Service.
Prosecutors told the court that Oloyede used proceeds from the scheme to acquire land, build a home, and purchase a luxury vehicle.
In total, he was linked to 38 fraudulent loan applications, amounting to $4,213,378 disbursed by the SBA.
Oluwasanmi, his co-conspirator, was sentenced in July 2024 to 27 months in prison for his role in the fraud.
He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release, pay a $15,000 fine, and return more than $1.2m in restitution.
He forfeited most of the proceeds he received, including a commercial property in South Euclid and over $600,000 traced to his financial accounts.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Transportation–Office of the Inspector General, the FBI, Cleveland Division, and IRS–Criminal Investigations, under the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee Fraud Task Force.
It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Edward D. Brydle and James L. Morford for the Northern District of Ohio.
Credit: punchng.com
