Tuesday, August 2o, 2024 - A 40-year-old Nigerian man was arrested in New York on charges that he, and others, conspired to fraudulently obtain at least $10 million in COVID-19 unemployment benefits.
Yomi
Jones Olayeye, a/k/a “Sabbie,” of Lagos, Nigeria, was arrested on August 13,
2024, upon arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York
City.
Acting United States Attorney Joshua
S. Levy; Special Agent in Charge Andrew Murphy of the U.S. Secret Service
Boston Field Office; Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of the
Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General; and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent
in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the
announcement on Monday, August 19. Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth B. Kosto,
Deputy Chief of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting
the case.
Olayeye is charged with one count of
wire fraud conspiracy, one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated
identity theft. He made an initial appearance in the Eastern District of New
York on Aug. 14, 2024, and will appear in federal court in Boston on Tuesday,
August 20.
According to the charging document,
between March and July 2020, Olayeye and others defrauded three pandemic
assistance programs administrated by the Massachusetts Department of
Unemployment Assistance and other states’ unemployment insurance agencies: traditional
unemployment insurance (UI), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Federal
Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC).
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 to be 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
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 United States
for use in fraudulent transactions.
In total, Olayeye and his co-conspirators allegedly
applied for at least $10 million in fraudulent UI, PUA and FPUC from
Massachusetts, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Montana, Maine, Ohio
and Washington and received more than $1.5 million in assistance to which they
were not entitled.
The charges of wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy
provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised
release, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, forfeiture and
restitution. The charge of aggravated identity theft calls for a mandatory
minimum sentence of two years in prison to be added to any sentence imposed on
the wire fraud charge. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge
based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination
of a sentence in a criminal case.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across the government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud.
The Task Force
bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and
international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering
relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing
coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover
fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and
insights gained from prior enforcement efforts.
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