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Oba Joseph Oloyede convicted in Ohio for multimillion-dollar pandemic loan fraud.
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Monarch ordered to pay $4.4 million restitution, forfeit luxury assets and Medina home.
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Co-conspirator Oluwasanmi earlier jailed 27 months for role in the scheme.
A United States District Court has sentenced Oba Joseph Oloyede, the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, to 56 months in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fraud scheme.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, Oloyede, 62, who holds both Nigerian and American citizenship, was sentenced on August 26 by District Judge Christopher A. Boyko. He was further ordered to serve three years of supervised release, pay restitution of $4,408,543.38, and forfeit his Medina home and nearly $100,000 in seized fraud proceeds.
Prosecutors said Oloyede led a conspiracy to exploit U.S. federal loan programmes intended for businesses affected by the pandemic. Between April 2020 and February 2022, he and his associate, Edward Oluwasanmi, filed fraudulent applications under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) created through the CARES Act.
Investigators found that Oloyede, a tax preparer who ran several businesses and a nonprofit, caused the approval of 38 fraudulent applications, securing more than $4.2 million in loan disbursements. He also filed falsified applications for clients, taking up to 20 per cent of their loan amounts as kickbacks, which he failed to declare as income to U.S. tax authorities.
The funds were diverted for personal enrichment, including land purchases, a luxury vehicle, and construction projects.
His co-conspirator, Oluwasanmi, 62, of Willoughby, Ohio, had earlier been sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office stressed that the conviction highlighted the government’s determination to track and prosecute pandemic-related fraud. The case was jointly investigated by the FBI Cleveland Division, the IRS-Criminal Investigations unit, and the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General under the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee Fraud Task Force.
Prosecutors Edward D. Brydle and James L. Morford handled the case for the Northern District of Ohio.
