The Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, Oba Joseph Oloyede, and a Nigerian pastor, Edward Oluwasanmi, have been sentenced to more than four years in prison in the United States after pleading guilty to charges of $4.2 million COVID-19 relief fraud.
TheNewsGuru reports that Oba Oloyede was arrested and detained by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over allegations of defrauding the U.S. government of $4.2 million in COVID-19 relief funds.
Oloyede who was crowned as the monarch of Ipetumodu in 2019 and Oluwasanmi are facing 13 counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, and engaging in monetary transactions with criminally derived property.
After approximately one year in court, both men pleaded guilty to some charges after they appeared before Justice Christopher Boyko at the US District Court of Ohio.
In a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio on Tuesday, the monarch, was also ordered to “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.
“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,” the statement read.
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.
The court was told that Oloyede, who also worked as a tax preparer, “operated five businesses and one nonprofit, while Oluwasanmi owned an additional three business entities.
“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,” the statement added.
According to investigators, “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.”
The funds were then used for personal gain, prosecutors said.
“Investigators learned that the defendant used funds obtained from these loans to acquire land and build a home and purchase a luxury vehicle,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office disclosed.
In all, Oloyede “caused the SBA to approve 38 fraudulent applications, amounting to $4,213,378 in disbursed loans and advances.”