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A Nigerian man from Lagos State, identified as Yomi Olaleye, faces the possibility of a 20-year prison sentence in the United States after being arrested for allegedly stealing $10m from COVID-19 employment relief funds.
The suspect was arrested at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on August 13, 2024, on charges of conspiring to obtain the funds.
The acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy, along with Special Agent in Charge Andrew Murphy of the U.S. Secret Service Boston Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Mellone of the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, and Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen of the FBI’s Boston Division, disclosed this on Monday via the official website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts under the Department of Justice.
The arrest is part of the ongoing U.S. efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Attorney General previously established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to achieve this objective.
Olaleye and his co-conspirators are alleged to have defrauded three COVID-19 relief programmes, including Unemployment Insurance, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, which were managed by the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance and other state unemployment agencies.
According to court documents, the 40-year-old Nigerian, along with others, allegedly filed for at least $10m in fraudulent pandemic relief programmes across multiple states, including Massachusetts, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Montana, Maine, Ohio, and Washington. They were believed to have received over $1.5m in assistance to which they were not entitled.
The statement revealed that the suspect had been charged with one count of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
On August 14, 2024, Olaleye reportedly made his first court appearance in the Eastern District of New York.
The statement partly read, “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 as eligible state residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“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 US for use in the fraudulent transactions.”
If convicted, Olaleye faces up to 20 years in a US prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, along with forfeiture and restitution.
