A United States District Court has sentenced the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, Oba Joseph Oloyede, to 56 months in prison over his involvement in a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fund fraud.
According to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, the sentence was delivered on Tuesday, August 26, by U.S. District Judge Christopher A. Boyko.
Oba Oloyede, 62, who holds dual Nigerian and U.S. citizenship and resides in Medina, Ohio, was also ordered to pay $4,408,543.38 in restitution, forfeit his Medina residence purchased with fraud proceeds, and surrender an additional $96,006.89 seized by investigators.
He will also serve three years of supervised release after completing his prison term.
Prosecutors revealed that between April 2020 and February 2022, Oloyede and his associate, Edward Oluwasanmi, conspired to exploit emergency loan programs created under the U.S. CARES Act to support businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using five businesses and one nonprofit under Oloyede’s control, and three business entities owned by Oluwasanmi, the duo submitted fraudulent applications for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL).
Investigators said Oloyede was responsible for 38 fraudulent applications, resulting in $4,213,378 in disbursed loans. He also filed false applications for clients, taking 15–20% kickbacks from their loans, which he failed to declare to the IRS.
The funds were allegedly diverted for personal use, including land purchases, home construction, and a luxury vehicle acquisition.
Oluwasanmi, 62, of Willoughby, Ohio, was earlier sentenced in July to 27 months in prison and ordered to repay over $1.2 million.
The case was jointly investigated by the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, the FBI Cleveland Division, and IRS-Criminal Investigations, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward D. Brydle and James L. Morford.
