Nigerian Arrested In US Over Alleged $10m COVID-19 Fund Fraud

A Nigerian man, who reportedly conspired to fraudulently obtain at least $10 million COVID-19 unemployment benefits from the United States government has been arrested, US authorities said.

The US attorney’s office, district of Massachusetts, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, saying that the Nigerian with the name Yomi Jones Olayeye, a.k.a “Sabbie,” from Lagos State, was arrested on August 13. Olayeye was nabbed upon arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Between March and July 2020, Olayeye and his associates in the fraud enterprise had according to the court, defrauded three pandemic assistance programs administered by the Massachusetts department of unemployment assistance; the traditional unemployment insurance (UI), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC).

“Specifically, Olayeye and his co-conspirators allegedly used personally identifiable information (PII) they purchased over criminal internet forums to apply for UI, PUA and FPUC – falsely representing themselves to be eligible state residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the attorney’s office said.

“Olayeye and his co-conspirators allegedly used the same fraudulently obtained PII to open U.S. bank and prepaid debit card accounts to receive the assistance payments.

“It is also alleged that Olayeye and his co-conspirators recruited U.S.-based account holders to receive and transfer the fraud proceeds via cash transfer applications.“Olayeye and his co-conspirators then allegedly used the fraudulent proceeds to purchase Bitcoin via online marketplaces. It is further alleged that Olayeye and his co-conspirators concealed the conspiracy’s connection to Nigeria by leasing Internet Protocol addresses assigned to computers located in the United States for use in the fraudulent transactions.”

Following the false representations, the 40-year-old Nigerian and his co-conspirators successfully received over $1.5 million in assistance to which they were not entitled.

According to the statement, “charges of wire fraud and its conspiracy provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, forfeiture, and restitution.”

The US court system also has it that the aggravated identity theft charge calls for a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison to be added to any sentence imposed on the wire fraud charge.

The Nigerian reportedly made his first appearance in a New York district court on August 14 and was scheduled to come before the federal court in Boston this Tuesday.