A United States District Court in Maryland has sentenced a 29-year-old Nigerian national, Temitope Bashua, to 30 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy that targeted America’s COVID-19 relief programmes, defrauding government agencies of unemployment benefits and disaster loans meant for struggling citizens and businesses.
Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher handed down the sentence, which also includes two years of supervised release, after Bashua admitted to participating in a multi-year scheme to steal personal information and file bogus claims across multiple states.
He reportedly made away with more than $290,000.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Kelly O. Hayes, announced the conviction alongside senior officials from the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Baltimore, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG).
According to court documents and Bashua’s plea agreement, the fraud ran from May 2020 to September 2022, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when the U.S. government rolled out massive financial aid to cushion the economic hardships faced by millions.
The CARES Act, enacted in March 2020, created emergency support systems including expanded Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) programme.
While the initiatives were designed to keep families and businesses afloat, prosecutors say Bashua and his co-conspirators exploited the system by stealing the personal data of unsuspecting victims and filing fraudulent claims in Maryland and California.
Investigators revealed that the group used stolen personally identifiable information (PII) to impersonate real applicants without their knowledge or consent.
Through these false claims, the conspirators collected unemployment benefits and attempted to access EIDL funds — including advances of up to $10,000 that do not require repayment under the Small Business Administration’s guidelines.
Additionally, 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.
According to the statement, “As a result of the fraudulent EIDL applications, Bashua received more than $290,000 in U.S. Treasury funds from the SBA. Bashua also admitted his involvement in other schemes, including cyber intrusion, romance fraud, and business email compromise fraud schemes.
“The District of Maryland Strike Force is one of five strike forces established throughout the United States by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute COVID-19 fraud, including fraud relating to the CARES Act. The strike forces focus on large-scale, multi-state pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors.
“The strike forces are interagency law enforcement efforts, using prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams designed to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.”
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