Willoughby man indicted on fraud charges

Accused in COVID-19 relief funds scheme

A Willoughby man has been charged by a federal grand jury in Cleveland on a 13-count indictment along with a Medina man for their alleged roles in a scheme to fraudulently obtain approximately $4.2 million in COVID-19 relief funds

According to a Department of Justice news release, 61-year-old Edward Oluwasanmi of Willoughby and 61-year-old Joseph Oloyede of Medina face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

According to the indictment, from around April 2020, and continuing through about Feb. 28, 2022, Oloyede and Oluwasanmi devised a scheme to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration and financial institutions by obtaining COVID-19 relief funds from the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster

Loan program and the Paycheck Protection Program.

The indictment states that Oloyede and Oluwasanmi submitted PPP and EIDL loan applications containing false information for entities under their control and submitted falsified tax and wage documents to support these applications.

The indictment alleges that they obtained approximately $1.2 million in SBA funds for Oluwasanmi’s entities and $1.7 million for Oloyede’s entities.

Oloyede is also alleged to have submitted falsified loan applications in the names of other co-conspirators and confederate borrowers and their businesses, obtaining approximately $1.3 through those applications for a total of at least $4.2 million obtained through the fraud.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation — OIG, as part of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee Fraud Task Force, Cleveland FBI and IRS — Criminal Investigation.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Brydle, according to the release.