A U.S. court has sentenced Abiola Femi Quadri to 11 years in prison over a million-dollar fraud and funnelling the proceeds back to Nigeria to build a hotel, nightclub, and shopping mall.

A United States district judge, George H. Wu, sentenced Mr. Quadri for defrauding California and Nevada of $1.3 million in COVID-19 pandemic unemployment and disability insurance benefits.

Mr Quadri, 43, perpetrated his fraudulent scheme by using stolen identities to submit over 100 applications for COVID-19 pandemic unemployment and disability insurance benefits from the U.S. government between 2021 and 2024.

Quadri withdrew the fraudulent unemployment and disability benefits at ATMs from 2021 until his arrest in September 2024 at Los Angeles International Airport, where he was scheduled to fly to Nigeria, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE also revealed that Mr Quadri sent at least $500,000 abroad during the scheme. He also paid for the construction of a 120-room resort hotel in Nigeria, the Oyins International, that includes a nightclub, a mall, and additional high-end amenities. It added that Mr Quadri failed to disclose his ownership of the hotel as required when completing his financial disclosure to the court.

Investigators found images of 17 counterfeit cheques totalling more than $3.3 million on Quadri’s phone, along with messages discussing negotiations for the cheques. Some of the cheques were made payable to shell businesses held in the names of Mr Quadri’s aliases. 

California paid Mr Quadri to provide daycare services to developmentally disabled children through his Altadena-based business, Rock of Peace. When agents searched Mr Quadri’s residence, they found the children’s misappropriated food-aid debit cards.

The judge also ordered Mr Quadri, who acquired U.S. permanent residency through a fake wedding arrangement with a woman who was not his wife, to “pay $1,356,229 in restitution and a $35,000 fine.”