Oba Joseph Oloyede, the Apetu of Ipetumodu
Oba Joseph Oloyede, the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison by a U.S. District Court on Tuesday.
A report by cleveland.com reported that Oloyede, who is 62, and one Edward Oluwasanmi, 62, were jailed for creating fake businesses to dupe the US government of $4.2 million in coronavirus relief money.
Both men who owned real businesses created others on paper, lied on applications for money meant to help small businesses stay afloat during the pandemic and recruited people to fill out the faked 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,” a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio stated on Tuesday.
The duo pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax fraud charges back in April this year, and Oluwasanmi was sentenced to 27 months in prison in July. He was ordered to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution, forfeit a commercial property and surrender more than $600,000.
In addition to spending over four years in prison, Oloyede, who holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Nigeria, 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,” according to the statement.
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