A federal grand jury in Seattle, Washington, has indicted
one Chukwuemeka Onyegbula for alleged conspiracy to commit wire fraud and
aggravated identity theft.
Tessa Gorman, acting US attorney for the western district of
Washington, announced the indictment in a statement by the department of
justice.
Onyegbula, identified as an information technology (IT)
engineer with Pan Ocean Oil Corporation Nigeria Limited, allegedly committed
the crime using the alias, ‘Phillip Carter’.
He was arrested on June 3, and is said to be currently
detained in Nigeria.
It is not yet clear if he will be extradited to the US for trial.
The suspect was reportedly linked to at least 253 fraudulent
unemployment insurance filings in Washington, Arizona, California, Colorado,
Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Montana, Ohio, Nevada, Rhode Island, Texas, and Wisconsin.
The indictment further alleged that Onyegbula and his
co-conspirators accessed the COVID-19 economic injury disaster loan (EIDL) page
on the small business administration’s website and submitted applications for
loans using the “stolen” personal identifiable information (PII) of US
residents.
While about $290,000 was said to have been paid out in
unemployment claims, an additional $54,000 was allegedly paid out in fraudulent
COVID-19 loans.
“Onyegbula allegedly used variations of a single e-mail
address in a manner intended to evade automatic detection by fraud systems. By
using this practice, Onyegbula made it appear that each claim was connected to
a different email account,” the statement issued on Thursday by the US justice
department reads.
“The email account used for fraud was linked to Onyegbula by
various electronic evidence such as phone numbers and IP addresses. The email
account contained information such as a visa application receipt, banking
information and homework assignments by Onyegbula’s son. The cyber evidence
also includes dozens of tax return information for U.S. citizens.
“Conspiracy to commit wire fraud is punishable by up to
thirty years in prison when the offense relates to benefits paid in connection
with a presidentially-declared disaster or emergency, such as the COVID-19
pandemic.
“Aggravated identity theft is punishable by a mandatory
minimum two year sentence to run consecutive to any sentence imposed on the
other counts of conviction.
“This case is being investigated by the FBI, with assistance
from the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG). The Office
of International Affairs of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division
provided substantial assistance. The Washington Employment Security Department
is cooperating in the investigation.”
Onyegbula’s case comes about two months after Abidemi Rufai,
a senior special assistant to Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun, was arrested in
the US over alleged fraud.
Rufai was alleged to have stolen over $350,000 in
unemployment benefits from the Washington State employment security department
(ESD).
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