A U.S. court has convicted a Nigerian national, Ikponmwosa Erhinmwinrose, for his role in a $7.6 million wire fraud scheme.

U.S. Department of Justice, in a statement, said Erhinmwinrose was convicted by a federal jury on six counts of wire fraud, three counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of wire fraud conspiracy, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Evidence presented at trial, the Department of Justice said, shows that Mr Erhinmwinrose and other conspirators in his fraud ring stole more than $7.6 million in government benefits from the Paycheck Protection Programme, Economic Injury Disaster Loan programme, multiple state unemployment insurance programs, including from the state of Colorado, and tax refunds.

Mr Erhinmwinrose, 39, and his co-conspirators used the stolen identities of more than 1,000 victims to obtain these benefits from economic relief programs launched by the U.S. government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To facilitate the criminal and fraudulent scheme, Mr Erhinmwinrose created dozens of email accounts under false names to impersonate real individuals and businesses.

He worked with conspirators to submit fraudulent benefit applications, and then instructed a network of conspirators to launder the proceeds through multiple bank accounts before converting the funds to cash or transferring them overseas.

As a result of Mr Erhinmwinrose’s actions, identity-theft victims never received IRS stimulus payments, received letters in the mail stating that they had to start repaying loans that Mr Erhinmwinrose had taken out in their names, and faced backlash on social media because others thought they had taken out large loans that in fact went to Erhinmwinrose and other members of his fraud ring.