A Nigerian man, recognized as Yomi Olayeye has been arrested and charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, and id theft for his alleged position in a $10 million pandemic unemployment help fraud scheme in america.
America Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Massachusetts underneath the Division of Justice revealed this in an announcement posted on its web site on Monday.
The assertion learn, “A Nigerian man was arrested on Aug. 13, 2024 upon arriving at John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport in New York Metropolis on costs that he and different conspired to fraudulently acquire a minimum of $10 million in COVID-19 unemployment advantages.
“Yomi Jones Olayeye, a/okay/a “Sabbie,” 40, of Lagos, Nigeria, is charged with one rely of wire fraud conspiracy, one rely of wire fraud, and one rely of aggravated id theft. He made an preliminary look within the Jap District of New York on Aug. 14, 2024 and can seem in federal court docket in Boston tomorrow.
“Based on the charging doc, between March and July 2020, Olayeye and others defrauded three pandemic help applications administrated by the Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Help and different states’ unemployment insurance coverage businesses: conventional unemployment insurance coverage (UI), Pandemic Unemployment Help (PUA) and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC).”
Olayeye and his co-conspirators have been alleged to have used stolen private data to use for unemployment advantages in a number of states, together with Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Indiana.
The assertion added, “In whole, Olayeye and his co-conspirators allegedly utilized for a minimum of $10 million in fraudulent UI, PUA and FPUC from Massachusetts, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Montana, Maine, Ohio and Washington and acquired greater than $1.5 million in help to which they weren’t entitled.
“Particularly, Olayeye and his co-conspirators allegedly used personally identifiable data (PII) they bought over legal web boards to use 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 identical fraudulently obtained PII to open U.S. financial institution and pay as you go debit card accounts to obtain the help funds. It is usually alleged that Olayeye and his co-conspirators recruited U.S.-based account holders to obtain and switch the fraud proceeds by way of money switch purposes.”
They have been additionally alleged to have used the advantages to buy Bitcoin and hid their connection to Nigeria through the use of US-based IP addresses.
“Olayeye and his co-conspirators then allegedly used the fraudulent proceeds to buy Bitcoin by way of on-line marketplaces.
“It’s additional alleged that Olayeye and his co-conspirators hid the conspiracy’s connection to Nigeria by leasing Web Protocol addresses assigned to computer systems positioned in america to be used within the fraudulent transactions,” the assertion learn.
America Division of Justice additional defined that if convicted, Olayeye faces as much as 20 years in jail, three years of supervised launch, a advantageous of $250,000 or twice the gross achieve or loss, forfeiture, and restitution.
The assertion added,”The fees of wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy present for a sentence of as much as 20 years in jail, three years of supervised launch, a advantageous of $250,000 or twice the gross achieve or loss, fforfeiture,and restitution.
“The cost of aggravated id theft requires a compulsory minimal sentence of two years in jail to be added to any sentence imposed on the wire fraud cost.
“Sentences are imposed by a federal district court docket choose primarily based upon the U.S. Sentencing Pointers and statutes which govern the willpower of a sentence in a legal case.”
The Lawyer Normal was reported to have established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Activity Power on Could 17, 2021 to marshal the assets of the Division of Justice in partnership with businesses throughout the federal government to reinforce efforts to fight and stop pandemic-related fraud
