Celebrated Nigerian scholar Nkechy Ezeh, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday, has entered a plea deal, confessing to laundering over $1.4 million and evading tax.
Ms Ezeh entered the plea deal on Friday, following her arraignment before a United States District Court, Western District of Michigan, Southern Division, two days after her arrest by the FBI.
Ms Ezeh is the founder and chief executive officer of a now-closed nonprofit organisation, Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative, which funded and supported agencies that provided early learning opportunities for disadvantaged children.
Court records seen by Peoples Gazette show that the tenured professor who won the West Michigan Woman 2018 Woman of the Year award pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion.
In an interview published by VoyageMichigan, a U.S.-based magazine, on August 31, 2022, Ms Ezeh, who said she has five children with her husband, Pius, boasted about her hard work and commitment to good family values.
“I honestly cannot recall not working two jobs and then tending to the real work at the home of cleaning, cooking, washing, school runs, etc., and of raising my children. I accomplished all that while at the same time raising, with my husband Pius, our five children, Onyinyé MK, Obinna, Akuezumkpa, Nnenna, and Nkechy-Nicole,” Ms Ezeh told VoyageMichigan.com.
According to court documents seen by The Gazette, the FBI and the court found that Ms Ezeh laundered funds through her NGO to fund her personal travel, including trips to Hawaii, Liberia, and Nigeria.
Ms Ezeh reached the agreement rather than have the case go before a federal grand jury for potential indictment.
The court documents, which outline the plea agreement she signed, further revealed that most of the stolen funds were wired to Nigeria, pointing to a possibility that she used the money to acquire properties in the West African country.
Ms Ezeh’s former bookkeeper, Sharon Killebrew, aged 70, is serving four years, six months in prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiring with Ms Ezeh to defraud a federally funded program and to evade tax. She was convicted of conspiring to embezzle $1,170,935.
The ELNC board welcomed their plea bargain.
“We welcome the news of Nkechy Ezeh’s acceptance of responsibility for reckless and unconscionable actions,” the ELNC board said in a statement. “The millions of dollars taken from ELNC forced the organisation to close its doors and deprived children in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Battle Creek’s poorest neighborhoods of essential early childhood services needed to prepare them for kindergarten success.”
The board further noted that Ms Ezeh’s plea and eventual sentencing will bring accountability and justice.
“Ezeh’s acceptance of the charges, and acknowledgment of her role as the architect of the scheme carried out with Sharon Killebrew against some of the community’s most vulnerable children and families, marks an important step toward the closure this board has sought for nearly three years,” the board said.
Ms Ezeh has agreed to pay restitution, while the government said the losses to ELNC will be $1.4 million.
She is also required to pay $390,000 in losses caused by her failure to report personal and business income to the IRS from 2017 to 2022, court records said.
In the plea deal, Ms Ezeh agreed that she conspired with Ms Killebrew and others to defraud ELNC and its donors, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Early Head Start Program and private donors, of $1.4 million.
The court documents reveal that Ms Ezeh directed Ms Killebrew to generate fictitious invoices for goods and services that were not received by ELNC. The former also caused the latter to disburse funds to herself (Ms Killebrew) and her contracting company, and provide the rest to the professor and others.
In one instance, Ms Ezeh directed Ms Killebrew to incorporate a non-profit with the state using stolen identities of three people, the plea agreement said.
Ms Ezeh is scheduled to plead guilty on January 14, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou in Lansing.
While tax evasion is a felony that attracts a five-year jail term, the wire-fraud charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison.
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