Thursday, May 14, 2026 - A United States district court in Michigan has sentenced a Nigerian professor, Dr. Nkechy Ezeh, 61, to 70 months in federal prison for orchestrating a fraud scheme that stole $1.4 million in taxpayer and donor money intended for vulnerable preschool children.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Timothy
VerHey made the announcement in a press release issued by the U.S. Department
of Justice on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
Ezeh, of Kent County, Michigan, was also sentenced to a
concurrent prison term of 60 months for evading income taxes.
Chief U.S. District Judge Hala Y. Jarbou, who imposed the
sentence, characterized Ezeh as “a fraud and a thief,” described the scheme as
“brazen and widespread,” and noted that Ezeh stole money intended for some of
West Michigan’s most vulnerable children.
Judge Jarbou ordered Ezeh to pay $1.4 million in restitution
to the victims of the fraud and $390,174 to the IRS. Judge Jarbou also
remanded Ezeh directly to prison to begin serving her sentence immediately.
“Nkechy Ezeh’s greed is beyond reprehensible,” VerHey said.
"She stole taxpayer and private-donor dollars meant for low-income
children in our community. Instead of helping kids, she spent that money
on herself. The stolen money could have supported hundreds of West Michigan
children and their families. Judge Jarbou’s sentence was perfectly
appropriate.”
Ezeh, the 2018 West Michigan Woman of the Year, a two-time
appointee to the State of Michigan’s Early Childhood Investment Corporation’s
Executive Committee, and a tenured professor of education, founded Early
Learning Neighborhood Collaborative (ELNC), a West Michigan nonprofit funded by
the Department of Health and Human Service’s Early Head Start program, the U.S.
Department of Education, and private donors.
It provided meals, transportation, funding, advocacy, and
other services to children in preschools located in underserved communities.
As a result of the fraud, ELNC had to close its doors in
2023, many West Michigan preschools lost funding, and needy children lost
valuable resources.
ELNC also had to lay off its 35 employees without any
notice.
Sharon Killebrew, ELNC’s former bookkeeper and Ezeh’s
co-conspirator, was sentenced in November 2025 to 54 months in federal prison
for her role in the scheme.
In a sentencing memorandum, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said
that Ezeh used the stolen money to fund her lifestyle, pay for a family
member’s wedding, and to travel to Hawaii, Europe, and Africa.
She placed her family members on a ghost payroll that caused
ELNC to pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars for little or no work, and
she used money mules to wire hundreds of thousands of dollars of stolen money
to her family in Nigeria.
The sentencing memorandum also pointed out that, although
the direct victims of the fraud were ELNC’s donors, the federal government’s
Early Head Start Program, the U.S. Department of Education, and three of
Michigan’s largest, most generous, and most well-known charities – the people
most affected were the children and their families who lost the support ELNC
once provided.
These were mostly children of color under the age of five
years old, 72% of whom lived below the federal poverty level in some of the
poorest neighborhoods in Kent County, Kalamazoo, and Battle Creek.
“This case underscores the seriousness of misusing federal
grant funds for personal gain,” said Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ethridge of
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General
(HHS‑OIG).
“Our commitment to protecting the integrity of HHS programs
remains steadfast, and we will continue working closely with our law
enforcement partners to uphold these standards and ensure that violators are
held accountable.”
The case was investigated by HHS-OIG and Internal Revenue
Service-Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Clay Stiffler is
the prosecutor.
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