Nosa Edokpaigbe, a Nigerian national, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for his role in a scheme to defraud COVID-19 relief programs. The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced that Edokpaigbe was also ordered to pay $1,408,897.16 in restitution and forfeit $681,694. After completing his sentence, he will be deported to Nigeria.
According to court documents, between July 2020 and May 2021, Edokpaigbe submitted hundreds of fraudulent applications for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans using personal information from real individuals and fictitious business entities. He used various methods to conceal his involvement, including signing loan agreements under other names, creating fake documents for nonexistent businesses, using wireless hotspots to hide online activity, and employing AI-generated images as well as photos of mannequins to bypass identity verification checks. Authorities seized the hotspot from his residence during his arrest in October 2023.
Edokpaigbe also filed one fraudulent EIDL application in his own name and submitted hundreds of false tax returns with stolen identities. As a result of the scheme, approximately $1.39 million was paid out through EIDL and PPP loans; most funds were deposited into accounts opened with false identities.
“While others were struggling to make ends meet during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nosa Edokpaigbe saw the national emergency as an opportunity to fleece American taxpayers out of almost $1.4 million,” said United States Attorney Peter McNeilly. “His shameless exploitation of relief programs which were supposed to be a lifeline for people in need has earned him several years in federal prison and a one-way trip back to Nigeria.”
“Nosa Edokpaigbe took advantage of what he saw as easy money through programs that were created to keep businesses and workers afloat during the pandemic, misdirecting that assistance to line his own pockets,” said Marv Massey, Acting Special Agent in Charge of FBI Denver. “His greed affects every American taxpayer, and the FBI will continue to aggressively pursue opportunists who think they can defraud the federal government.”
United States District Judge Regina M. Rodriguez presided over sentencing.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Denver Field Office along with the Cybercrime Investigations Division at the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Assistant United States Attorneys Nicole Cassidy and Anna Edgar prosecuted the case.
Anyone with information about attempted fraud involving COVID-19 relief can report it via phone or through an online complaint form provided by the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form
Case Number: 23-cr-442-RMR
