Bakare, according to the United States (US) Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California, was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The convict was said to have used parts of the ₦2 billion proceeds of the crime to purchase a condominium in Lekki, Lagos State, for ₦70 million.
A 26-year-old Nigerian man identified as Olamide Yusuf Bakare has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison.
Bakare, according to the United States (US) Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California, was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement addressed to members of the public, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert noted that Bakare had pleaded guilty to the charges since January 2023, but just got sentenced.
According to court documents, between June 2020 and July 2021, Bakare, along with co-defendants Quazeem Owolabi Adeyinka and Ayodeji Jonathan Sangode, and others, participated in a conspiracy to submit fraudulent Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims to the States of Maryland and California.
It was gathered that more than 200 individual applications were filed with the California Employment Development Department (EDD) and the Maryland Department of Labor (MDOL) indicating that the claimants’ address was the Hyattsville, Maryland apartment that the defendants shared.
The conspirators obtained the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of persons who were not eligible for UI or PUA benefits or who did not authorize the conspirators to act on their behalf with respect to seeking such benefits. Such PII was said to have included names, dates of birth, and social security numbers.
The conspirators then used the PII to submit dozens of fraudulent UI and PUA claims to EDD and MDOL under the putative claimants’ identities and without their authorization.
“The underlying benefit applications contained fraudulent representations, including, for example, that the claimants had worked for certain employers and supervisors; had specific annual incomes; worked during certain time periods; were self-employed in various occupations; were laid off and had no work; were newly unemployed due to a disaster including the COVID-19 pandemic; and were currently available to work.
“Most, if not all, of these claims, were false because the claimants were not so previously working, employed, or seeking new employment.
“The conspirators knew that these representations were false or lacked the knowledge and authority to make such representations. These actions caused EDD and MDOL to approve at least 142 fraudulent UI and PUA claims.
“For each approved claim, EDD and MDOL deposited benefit funds into a debit card account administered by Bank of America and under the identity of the putative claimant. Bank of America then mailed at least 142 unauthorized debit cards to addresses under the control of the defendants. Bakare then obtained these debit cards to withdraw cash at ATMs for the benefit of himself and his coconspirators.
“During this conspiracy, Bakare also possessed three additional UI debit cards which had been issued by Maine’s Bureau of Unemployment Compensation, North Carolina’s Division of Employment Security, and Nevada’s Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation. Each debit card was linked to an account that contained UI benefits. Bakare was not the named beneficiary on the cards or for the associated benefits, and he possessed them with intent to defraud the state agencies,” the court documents read.
It was further revealed that the debit cards that Bakare possessed and used during the conspiracy were linked to bank accounts that received a total of at least $2,265,844 in fraudulent UI and PUA benefits. This amounts to an estimated ₦1.94 billion using the current exchange rate average of ₦860/$.
 Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California, was convicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic.){kind=link}