Oba Joseph Oloyede, the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, has been sentenced to more than four years in an American prison for stealing millions of dollars from emergency COVID-19 relief programmes.
The 62-year-old monarch, who holds both American and Nigerian citizenship and lives in Medina, Ohio, was handed a 56-month jail term by a US court for his role in what prosecutors called a sophisticated fraud scheme targeting pandemic assistance funds.
Oloyede masterminded a conspiracy to exploit emergency loan programmes designed to help struggling businesses during the coronavirus crisis.
US District Judge Christopher Boyko also ordered him to pay $4.4m in restitution, surrender his home in Medina, and hand over nearly $100,000 in stolen money that had already been seized. He must also serve three years of supervised release after his imprisonment.
How the scheme worked
Court papers revealed that between April 2020 and February 2022, Oloyede worked with an accomplice, Edward Oluwasanmi, to submit fake applications to two major US government relief programmes.
The pair targeted the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) schemes, both created under the CARES Act to provide emergency funding during the pandemic.
Prosecutors said Oloyede ran several businesses and a charity organisation, which he used as fronts to channel fraudulent loan requests through the system. He also submitted applications using the names of some of his tax clients, secretly taking a 15–20% cut of any money awarded without declaring this income to tax authorities.
What he used the money for
Federal investigators discovered that Oloyede successfully obtained approval for 38 fraudulent applications worth $4.2m in government funds that were meant for legitimate businesses struggling during the pandemic.
Rather than using the money for business purposes as required, court documents show he spent portions of the stolen funds to buy land, build a home, and purchase a luxury vehicle.
His partner in the scheme, Oluwasanmi, received a lighter sentence in July – 27 months in prison. He was also ordered to repay $1.2m and forfeit property plus more than $600,000 held in various accounts.
The case formed part of a wider crackdown on pandemic fraud by US authorities. The investigation was carried out by the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigations, and the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General, working under the US Pandemic Response Accountability Committee’s Fraud Task Force.
The Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan schemes were among the largest government relief efforts in US history, providing hundreds of billions in emergency funding to businesses affected by COVID-19 lockdowns and economic disruption.
However, the programmes’ rapid rollout and relaxed verification requirements made them attractive targets for fraudsters, leading to numerous prosecutions across the country as authorities work to recover stolen taxpayer money.
