For the next four years and eight months, an Osun monarch, the Apetu of Ipetumodu, Oba Joseph Oloyede, is to cool his heels in prison following a United States District Court sentencing slammed on him on Tuesday.
Oloyede was sent into jail for a $4.2 million COVID-19 relief fraud scandal.
The US Department of Justice, in a statement on Tuesday said Oloyede was sentenced on Tuesday by Justice Christopher Boyko.
Justice Boyko, while delivering the sentence, also ordered the monarch to pay $4.2 million in restitution.
The court’s decision marks a significant development in the case, which has drawn attention to the abuse of COVID-19 relief funds.
Oloyede’s guilty plea to 13 charges related to the scam had set the stage for the sentencing.
The traditional ruler was also ordered to pay the sum of $195,000 to the IRS for filing a false tax return.
Justice Boyko also ordered Oloyede to forfeit $96,000 in money seized from his bank account and his home on Foote Road that he bought in 2021 for $130,000.
Boyko said Oloyede was a “very smart guy who did a lot of stupid things.”
He said he would have sentenced the monarch to more prison time if it weren’t for his health issues.
Oloyede, a US-based accountant and information system expert, was appointed the new Apetu in July 2019.
He was arrested alongside a Nigerian pastor, Edward Oluwasanmi in early 2024 for their roles in a scheme to fraudulently obtain $4.2m in COVID-19 relief funds.
The two men were charged with 13 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, and engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property.
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