The United States Department of Justice announced that it has secured the convictions of two Nigerians, Temitope Bashua and Uchechukwu Gideon Eze, to a combined jail term of four years and three months for their respective roles in various fraud schemes totalling $472,000.
The first statement indicated that 29-year-old Bashua was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to cyber intrusion, romance fraud, and business email compromise fraud schemes, among others.
The statement noted that between May 2020 and September 2022, the convict, alongside other co-conspirators, filed fraudulent benefit applications and received more than $290,000.
According to his plea agreement, and other court documents, from May 2020 through September 2022, Bashua and others conspired to impersonate victims to obtain money by submitting fraudulent UI benefits claims. Bashua and his co-conspirators used the personally identifiable information without the victims’ knowledge or consent to submit fraudulent applications for UI benefits in Maryland and California.
Additionally, in October 2020, as part of the conspiracy, co-conspirators submitted two fraudulent EIDL applications to the SBA for fictitious businesses using the PII of identity victims. As a result of the fraudulent EIDL applications, Bashua received more than $290,000 in U.S.”
In another statement, the US DoJ noted that Eze was sentenced to 21 months and also ordered to pay $182,201 in restitution.
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