Nigerian Man Sentenced to 60 Months in Prison for COVID-19 Related Fraud

DENVER – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announces that Nosa Edokpaigbe, a Nigerian national, was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison, ordered to pay $1,408,897.16 in restitution, and a forfeiture money judgement totaling $681,694 after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud and agreeing to the entry of a stipulated judicial removal order.  After serving his sentence, Edokpaigbe will be removed to Nigeria.

According to the plea agreement, from around July 2020 and until around May 2021, Edokpaigbe prepared and submitted hundreds of fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applications on behalf of fictitious business entities using personal identifying information belonging to other real individuals. To conceal his involvement in the fraud, Edokpaigbe signed loan agreements in other names, created fabricated documents for the fictitious entities, used a wireless hotspot to conceal his online activity, and used AI-generated images and images of mannequins to bypass the lenders’ identity verification procedures.  The hotspot was seized from the defendant’s residence at the time of his arrest in October 2023. He also submitted one fraudulent EIDL in his own name and filed hundreds of fraudulent tax returns using personal identifying information belonging to other real individuals.  As a result of the scheme, $1,389,713 was paid out in EIDL and PPP loans, the majority of which was deposited into bank accounts opened using 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 the sentencing.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Denver Field Office and the Cybercrime Investigations Division of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Assistant United States Attorneys Nicole Cassidy and Anna Edgar handled the prosecution.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form

Case Number: 23-cr-442-RMR