Nigerian National indicted in Washington State for fraud on COVID-19 economic relief programs | USAO-WDWA

Seattle – A Nigerian citizen has been charged by a state grand jury in Seattle with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, multiple wire fraud and grave identity theft, US Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said. Chukwuemeka Onyegbula, aka Phillip Carter, is currently in custody in Nigeria.

According to the indictment and an unsealed criminal complaint dated June 6, 2021, law enforcement agencies linked an Onyegbula email account using the name “Phillip Carter” to at least 253 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims in Washington, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois , Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Nevada, Rhode Island, Texas, and Wisconsin. Almost $ 290,000 was paid in unemployment claims. In addition, the indictment alleges that Onyegbula and his co-conspirators accessed the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) page on the Small Business Administration website and requested EIDL using the stolen PII from residents of Washington and other states to have. Almost $ 54,000 was paid out in fraudulent catastrophe loans.

Onyegbula allegedly used variations of a single email address to bypass automatic detection by fraud systems. By doing this, Onyegbula made it appear that each claim was linked to a different email account. The email account used for fraud has been linked to Onyegbula through various electronic evidence such as phone numbers and IP addresses. The email account contained information such as a receipt for the visa application, bank details, and homework for Onyegbula’s son. The cyber evidence also contains dozens of tax filing information for US residents.

Evidence gathered suggests Onyegbula is employed as an IT engineer at Pan Ocean Oil Corporation Nigeria Limited.

Conspiracy to commit wire transfer fraud and wire transfer fraud are punishable by up to thirty years in prison if the offense relates to benefits paid in connection with a presidential-declared disaster or emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Serious identity theft carries a mandatory minimum of two years’ imprisonment following any other conviction.

The allegations contained in the indictment are only allegations. A person is considered innocent unless proven beyond doubt in a court of law.

This case is being investigated by the FBI with the assistance of the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG). The Department of International Affairs of the Department of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of Justice provided significant assistance. The Washington Employment Security Department is cooperating with the investigation.

This case is being prosecuted by US assistant attorneys Cindy Chang and Seth Wilkinson.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to mobilize the Department of Justice’s resources in collaboration with government agencies to step up efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force supports efforts to identify and prosecute the most guilty national and international criminal actors and assists authorities charged with managing fraud prevention aid programs by, among other things, expanding and integrating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques, to detect fraudulent actors and actors their systems as well as the sharing and use of information and intelligence gained from previous enforcement efforts. For more information on the ministry’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus

Anyone with information about suspected COVID-19-related fraud can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) hotline at 866-720-5721 or using the NCDF web complaint form at: https: // www .justice.gov / disaster-fraud / ncdf-disaster-complaint form.