US Jails Osun Monarch for COVID-19 Relief Fraud
A United States court has sentenced Oba Joseph Oloyede, the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, to 56 months in prison for participating in a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fraud scheme. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio confirmed that Oloyede, 62, who holds dual citizenship in Nigeria and the United States, was sentenced on August 26 by District Judge Christopher A. Boyko. As part of the judgment, the monarch must serve three years of supervised release after his prison term, pay $4.4 million in restitution, and forfeit both his Medina, Ohio home and nearly $100,000 in seized fraud proceeds. Fraud Scheme Details Prosecutors revealed that between April 2020 and February 2022, Oloyede and his co-conspirator, Edward Oluwasanmi, submitted fraudulent applications to access emergency loans created under the CARES Act to support businesses during the pandemic. Oloyede, a […]