By Ameenat Hamzat, Lagos, Nigeria
A United States District Court has sentenced the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, Oba Joseph Oloyede, to 56 months in prison for participating in a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fraud scheme.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio said the sentence was delivered on Tuesday, August 26, by District Judge Christopher A. Boyko. Oloyede, 62, who holds both Nigerian and U.S. citizenship and resides in Medina, Ohio, was also ordered to pay $4,408,543.38 in restitution, forfeit his Medina home purchased with fraud proceeds, and surrender $96,006.89 seized by investigators. He will serve three years of supervised release after his prison term.
Prosecutors said that between April 2020 and February 2022, Oloyede and his associate, Edward Oluwasanmi, conspired to exploit emergency loan programmes created under the U.S. CARES Act. They used multiple businesses and a nonprofit under Oloyede’s control, as well as Oluwasanmi’s companies, to submit fraudulent applications for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL).
According to investigators, Oloyede was responsible for 38 fraudulent applications that resulted in $4,213,378 in disbursed loans. He also filed false applications for clients and took 15–20% kickbacks, which he failed to declare to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Authorities said the funds were diverted for personal use, including land purchases, home construction and a luxury vehicle.
Oluwasanmi, 62, of Willoughby, Ohio, was sentenced in July to 27 months in prison and ordered to repay more than $1.2 million.
The case was investigated by the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, the FBI Cleveland Division and IRS Criminal Investigations. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward D. Brydle and James L. Morford.
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