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Nigerian Monarch Sentenced to Five Years in U.S. Prison for $4.4m COVID-19 Relief Fraud
A United States court has sentenced Joseph Oloyede, the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, to five years in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fraud, ordering him to repay more than $4.4 million to victims.
At his sentencing on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, Judge Christopher A. Boyko of the Northern District of Ohio handed Oloyede 56 months each on counts one and 13 of the indictment, and 36 months on counts one and two of a supplemental filing.
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Court documents show the terms will run concurrently.
In addition to prison time, the monarch will serve three years of supervised release, pay a mandatory $400 special assessment, and forfeit assets linked to the scheme. The court also entered a restitution order of $4,408,543.38, which Oloyede must repay to his victims.
The 62-year-old monarch had pleaded guilty earlier this year after prosecutors revealed he used six companies to fraudulently secure loans under the U.S. Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) scheme — funds designed to help struggling businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Investigators said he forged documents, inflated payrolls, and diverted millions of dollars into personal and business accounts.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Oloyede in May 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio, months after he secretly left Nigeria. His disappearance from Ipetumodu had caused unease in the community as he missed key traditional festivals such as the Egungun and Odun Edi.
U.S. prosecutors later seized assets linked to the fraud, including a Medina County property and over $96,000 from one of his companies. Oloyede was granted bail after surrendering both his Nigerian and U.S. passports but was restricted from international travel pending judgment.
In a plea for leniency filed ahead of sentencing, his attorneys, Cal Cumpstone and Michael I. Marein, acknowledged his guilt but argued the pandemic contributed to his poor decisions. They stressed his remorse, clean prior record, and service history, noting that before becoming Apetu in 2019, Oloyede had worked as a banker, adjunct professor, and earned a doctorate.
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Back home, his conviction has thrown Ipetumodu into uncertainty. The monarch’s prolonged absence has left the town without active leadership for over a year, creating a vacuum in cultural and traditional governance. Local chiefs have tried to manage affairs, but concerns about succession are quietly growing.
Observers say the case is unprecedented, raising embarrassment within Osun’s traditional council, as it is rare for a Yoruba king to be tried and jailed abroad for financial crimes.
Oloyede, a father of six and foster parent to other children, now joins a growing list of Nigerians convicted of fraud-related crimes in the United States. His sentencing underscores both the scale of abuse in U.S. COVID-19 relief programs and the personal toll on his community, which once celebrated his coronation as a symbol of progress.
