Nigerian Man Charged in Shocking $10 Million COVID-19 Fraud Scheme: Justice at Last
On August 13, 2024, Yomi Jones Olayeye, a 40-year-old Nigerian man, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Known by the alias “Sabbie,” Olayeye, hailing from Lagos, Nigeria, faces serious charges related to a massive fraud scheme. The charges allege that he, along with others, orchestrated a conspiracy to fraudulently secure at least $10 million in COVID-19 unemployment benefits.
The arrest was announced on August 19 by key officials including 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. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth B. Kosto, who serves as the Deputy Chief of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit.
Olayeye is facing multiple charges: one count of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft. He made his initial court appearance in the Eastern District of New York on August 14, 2024, and is scheduled for a subsequent appearance in federal court in Boston on August 20.
The indictment reveals that between March and July 2020, Olayeye and his accomplices defrauded three different pandemic assistance programs managed by the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance and other state unemployment agencies. The programs involved are traditional unemployment insurance (UI), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC). The defendants allegedly obtained personally identifiable information (PII) through illicit online sources and used this data to fraudulently apply for these benefits, falsely claiming to be eligible residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. They also reportedly used the stolen PII to open U.S. bank and prepaid debit card accounts to receive the illicit payments.
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