The Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, Oba Joseph Oloyede, has been sentenced to more than four years in prison by a United States court for his role in a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fraud.
The 62-year-old monarch, who holds both Nigerian and American citizenship and resides in Ohio, was handed a 56-month jail term on Tuesday by the US District Judge Christopher A. Boyko.
He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release, pay $4,408,543 in restitution, and forfeit his Medina residence along with nearly $100,000 seized by investigators.
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, Oloyede conspired with his associate, Pastor Edward Oluwasanmi, to exploit federal emergency loan programmes created under the CARES Act to support struggling businesses during the pandemic.
Between April 2020 and February 2022, the pair submitted falsified applications for the Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) scheme.
Oloyede, who also worked as a tax preparer, ran five businesses and a nonprofit organisation, which he used to channel fraudulent requests. He also filed applications on behalf of some of his tax clients, taking 15–20 per cent of their loans as kickbacks without declaring the income to tax authorities.
Prosecutors revealed that Oloyede was responsible for 38 fraudulent applications worth more than $4.2 million. Rather than investing in businesses, he spent the money on land acquisition, a luxury vehicle, and the construction of a house.
Before Tuesday’s sentencing, the monarch’s ordeal had made headlines in both Nigeria and the United States. He went missing from his Ipetumodu community in March 2024, failing to attend major traditional festivals, sparking anxiety among indigenes. Weeks later, he was arrested by the FBI upon his return to the US and detained on suspicion of orchestrating the multimillion-dollar fraud.
By April 2024, Oloyede and Oluwasanmi were formally indicted on 13 counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, and engaging in monetary transactions with criminally derived property.
The case drew widespread attention in Nigeria, with the Osun State Government in May 2025 vowing to investigate the allegations while insisting that the dignity of traditional institutions must be upheld.
In April 2025, both men pleaded guilty to wire fraud and related charges. Oloyede admitted in court that he deliberately exploited pandemic relief programmes, while his legal team later appealed for leniency, citing the economic and psychological strain of COVID-19 as mitigating factors.
His co-conspirator, Oluwasanmi, was sentenced in July 2025 to 27 months in prison. He was ordered to repay more than $1.2 million in restitution, forfeit a commercial property purchased with illicit funds, and surrender over $600,000 from his financial accounts.
US authorities have described the conviction as part of a wider crackdown on individuals who misused taxpayer-funded COVID-19 programmes. The investigation was carried out by the FBI Cleveland Division, IRS Criminal Investigations, and the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General, under the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee’s Fraud Task Force.
The Paycheck Protection Programme and the EIDL scheme disbursed billions of dollars during the pandemic, but their rapid rollout and weak verification processes made them prime targets for fraudsters.
