FBI Arrests Nigerian At JFK Airport Over $10m Covid Fraud

Four years ago, the United States and the world were in the grips of the COVID pandemic. While there were many heroes in that battle, there were also villains.

One of those alleged villains is Yomi Jones “Sabbie” Olayeye, a 40-year-old Nigerian accused of seeking $10 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits and receiving $1.5 million in pandemic relief payments, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Massachusetts said in an Aug. 19 press release.

Olayeye was arrested by Secret Service agents on August 13 upon arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. He has since been transferred from the Eastern District of New York to the District of Massachusetts jurisdiction for further court proceedings, the Massachusetts office said.

Olayeye and another unnamed Nigerian national were indicted in September 2020 on one count of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors allege that from March to July 2020, Olayeke and his co-conspirator filed false claims under traditional Unemployment Assistance (UI), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) administered by the unemployment departments of Massachusetts, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Montana, Maine, Ohio and Washington, according to a signed flight risk letter submitted to the court and obtained by The Daily Muck.

A federal court has charged Yomi Jones “Sabbie” Olayeye with multiple fraud counts of pandemic paycheck protection (PPP) programs, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Muck.

In an August 14 letter to the U.S. magistrate in Brooklyn, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Olayeye’s “co-defendant remains at large.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Olayeye and his co-conspirator allegedly used personally identifiable information (PII) purchased via criminal internet forums to pretend to be eligible state residents and apply for the pandemic relief assistance.

The fraudsters also allegedly used that information to open bank accounts and prepaid debit cards to receive the payments.

The indictment claims the conspirators individuals with U.S. bank accounts – whom they called “clients” – to receive the fraudulent unemployment payments and wire the money to Nigeria. The group rented space on a U.S. server to file the claims to hide their connection with Nigeria.

On August 20, a federal judge in Brooklyn ordered Olayeye to be transferred to Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., while his case is handled in Boston.

In arguing the defendant not be granted bail, the New York U.S. Attorney’s Office noted, among other factors, that Olayeye was denied a non-immigrant visa in 2017 and “falsely stated on his current visa application that he had never been refused a U.S. visa.

His lack of candor with U.S. authorities undercuts any suggestion that he would be truthful with the United States Probation and Pretrial Services Office tasked with supervising his conditions of release.”

In the August 14 “flight risk” letter to the court, Eastern New York U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Olayeye had never been in the U.S. until August 13, when he was arrested at the airport upon arrival. The prosecutor noted Olayeye’s wife and children arrived in this country in April and the wife has temporary employment with a human services agency.

“The evidence against the defendant is also particularly compelling,” Peace wrote. “The government intends to prove the defendant’s guilt at trial using, among other things, the contents of his own e-mail and other social media accounts, which establish both his connections to his co-defendant and his control of significant quantities of PII tied to pandemic and other species of fraud.”

If convicted, Olayeye could face 20 years in prison on each count of wire fraud and conspiracy both carry maximum sentences of 20 years in prison and three years of supervised release, the Massachusetts office noted in its press release.

The court can also impose a hefty fine and require forfeiture of ill-gotten gains and restitution to victims.

The aggravated identity theft offense has a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison, which would be added to the wire fraud sentence.

On August 26, U.S. Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley took under advisement the matter of whether Olayeye would remain in custody or be allowed bond pending trial.

This case is being pursued under the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force established by the attorney general in May 2021 to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud.

The Department of Justice provides more information on its response to pandemic-related fraud at https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus and https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus/combatingfraud.

The DOJ asks anyone having or needing information about possible fraud to visit its NCDF website and access its complaint form.

The information contained in the indictment and other court documents are only allegations and not proof of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

This is not the only article The Daily Muck has explored involving Nigerian criminals. One recent article involved two Nigerian men who targeted approximately 100 victims in a “sextortion” scheme.