COVID-19 Fraud: Nigerian King Gets Five Years in U.S. Jail, to Pay $4.4m in Fraud Restitution

A United States court has sentenced Joseph Oloyede, the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, to five years in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fraud and ordered him to pay more than $4.4 million in restitution to victims.

The sentence was delivered on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, by Judge Christopher A. Boyko of the Northern District of Ohio. Court documents show that Oloyede received 56 months on counts one and 13 of the indictment, and 36 months on counts one and two of the supplemental information. The terms will run concurrently. In addition, the monarch will serve three years of supervised release, pay a mandatory \$400 special assessment, and forfeit assets connected to the fraud.

Prosecutors dismissed several other counts, reducing what could have been a far lengthier sentence. Still, the court ordered Oloyede to repay $4,408,543.38 to victims. He is expected to self-report to the U.S. Marshals Service at a later date to begin serving his term.

Oloyede, 62, pleaded guilty earlier this year after investigators found that he used six companies to fraudulently secure loans under the U.S. Paycheck Protection Programme and Economic Injury Disaster Loan schemes. Prosecutors said he forged documents, inflated payrolls, and diverted millions meant to help struggling American businesses survive the pandemic.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested him in May 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio, after he quietly left Nigeria. His absence from Ipetumodu had sparked concern in his community, where he missed major festivals central to the town’s cultural life. U.S. authorities later seized a Medina County property and over \$96,000 linked to his fraudulent proceeds. He was granted bail on the condition that he surrendered both his Nigerian and U.S. passports and remained under travel restrictions until sentencing.

In a plea for leniency filed ahead of sentencing, Oloyede’s lawyers argued that the extraordinary pressures of the pandemic influenced his decisions. They highlighted his previously clean record, his work as a banker and adjunct professor in the U.S., and his service as monarch since 2019. The defense stressed that the crime was a sharp departure from his past life of responsibility and that he had expressed genuine remorse.

Back home, his conviction has unsettled Ipetumodu, which has effectively been without an active monarch for over a year. Community leaders have struggled to manage the leadership vacuum, while some residents have raised quiet concerns about succession if his reign is permanently compromised.

The case has also cast a shadow over the state’s traditional council, as it is rare for a Yoruba monarch to be tried and imprisoned abroad for financial crimes. Oloyede, a father of six and foster parent to several others, now joins a growing list of Nigerian elites convicted in the U.S. for fraud-related offenses, underscoring widespread concerns about abuse of COVID-19 relief programs.

For Ipetumodu, however, the matter is not just about international crime statistics but a painful reality: their traditional ruler will serve years behind bars in a foreign country.