Nigerian Man Pleads Guilty to $10 Million Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Fraud Scheme

Summary

Press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts, dated April 23, 2025. Yomi Jones Olayeye of Lagos, Nigeria, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, in connection with a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain at least $10 million in COVID-19 unemployment benefits. The release says that between March and July 2020 Olayeye and allegedly others used personally identifiable information bought on criminal internet forums to apply for benefits, and received more than $1.5 million to which they were not entitled. Senior United States District Judge Mark L. Wolf scheduled sentencing; the wire fraud charges provide for up to 20 years in prison.

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PRESS RELEASE


Nigerian Man Pleads Guilty to $10 Million
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
Fraud Scheme
Wednesday, April 23, 2025

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

BOSTON – A Nigerian man has pleaded guilty in connection with a conspiracy to
fraudulently obtain at least $10 million in COVID-19 unemployment benefits.

Yomi Jones Olayeye, a/k/a “Sabbie,” 40, of Lagos, Nigeria, pleaded guilty to one count of
wire fraud conspiracy and one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity
theft. Senior United States District Judge Mark L. Wolf scheduled sentencing for Aug. 13,
2025. Olayeye was arrested in August 2024 upon arriving at John F. Kennedy
International Airport and remains in federal custody.

Between March and July 2020, Olayeye and, allegedly others, defrauded three pandemic
assistance programs administrated by the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment
Assistance and other states’ unemployment insurance agencies: traditional
unemployment insurance (UI), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Federal
Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC).

Olayeye, and allegedly his co-conspirators, used personally identifiable information (PII)
they purchased over criminal internet forums to apply for UI, PUA and FPUC – falsely
representing themselves to be eligible state residents affected by the COVID-19
pandemic. Olayeye and his co-conspirators allegedly used the same fraudulently
obtained PII to open U.S. bank accounts and prepaid debit card accounts to receive the
assistance payments. Olayeye, and allegedly his co-conspirators, recruited U.S.-based
account holders to receive and transfer the fraud proceeds via cash transfer applications.
Olayeye, and allegedly his co-conspirators, then used the fraudulent proceeds to
purchase Bitcoin via online marketplaces. Olayeye, and allegedly his co-conspirators,
concealed the conspiracy’s connection to Nigeria by leasing Internet Protocol addresses
assigned to computers located in the United States for use in the fraudulent
transactions.
In total, Olayeye and his co-conspirators allegedly applied for at least $10 million in
fraudulent UI, PUA and FPUC from Massachusetts, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, Montana, Maine, Ohio and Washington and received more than $1.5
million in assistance to which they were not entitled.

The charges of wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy provide for a sentence of up to 20
years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross
gain or loss, forfeiture and restitution. The charge of aggravated identity theft calls for a
mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison to be served consecutive to any
sentence imposed on the wire fraud charge. Sentences are imposed by a federal district
court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the
determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Special Agent in Charge Randy Maloney 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 James Crowley, Acting Special
Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the
announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Seth B. Kosto and Meghan C. Cleary of
the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit are prosecuting the case.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement
Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with
agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-
related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most
culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with
administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating
existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover
fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and
insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the
department’s response to the pandemic, please
visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus and https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus/comb
atingfraud.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can
report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud
(NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining
defendants presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable
doubt in a court of law.
Updated April 23, 2025

Topics
CORONAVIRUS

FINANCIAL FRAUD
Component
USAO - Massachusetts


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