Oba Joseph Oloyede, the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, has been sentenced to four years and eight months in prison by a U.S. District Court.
According to a reports, Oloyede, 62, and his associate, Edward Oluwasanmi, also 62, were convicted for creating fake businesses to defraud the U.S. government of $4.2 million in coronavirus relief funds.
Both men, who owned legitimate businesses, were found guilty of setting up fictitious ones on paper, falsifying loan applications meant to support struggling small businesses during the pandemic, and recruiting others to fill out fraudulent forms.
“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.
“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 for the Northern District of Ohio said in a statement on Tuesday.
The duo had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and tax fraud in April this year. Oluwasanmi was sentenced in July to 27 months in prison, ordered to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution, forfeit a commercial property, and surrender over $600,000.
In addition to his prison term, Oloyede, who holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Nigeria, was 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,” the statement added.
