A United States of America-based Nigerian, Temitope Bashua, has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for his involvement in a fraud scheme, cornering $290,000 from the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher, sentenced Mr Bashua last Thursday for his involvement in a “conspiracy and scheme to fraudulently obtain unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL),” a statement by U.S. Department of Justice said.
Mr Bashua, 29, would also go through two years of supervised release, having entered a “plea agreement,” admitting his involvement in other schemes, including cyber intrusion, romance fraud, and business email compromise fraud schemes.
“In October 2020, as a part of the conspiracy, co-conspirators submitted two fraudulent EIDL applications to the SBA for fictitious businesses using the PII of identity victims. As a result of the fraudulent EIDL applications, Bashua received more than $290,000 in the U.S,” the DoJ said.
According to court documents, from May 2020 through September 2022, Mr Bashua and others conspired to impersonate victims to obtain money by submitting fraudulent UI benefits claims.
Mr Bashua and his co-conspirators used the personally identifiable information (PII) without the victims’ knowledge or consent, to submit fraudulent applications for UI benefits in Maryland and California.
This sentence trailed another episode of Nigerians in diaspora jailed for involvement in crimes.
In August, Joseph Oloyede, the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, was sentenced to five years in prison in the U.S. over his role in a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fraud.