A United States court has sentenced Joseph Oloyede, the Apetu of Ipetumodu in Osun State, to five years in prison over his role in a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fraud and ordered him to repay more than $4.4 million to victims.

At a sentencing held on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, before Judge Christopher A. Boyko of the Northern District of Ohio, Mr Oloyede was handed 56 months on each of counts one and 13 of the indictment, and 36 months on counts one and two of the supplemental information. All terms will run concurrently, according to court documents seen by the Peoples Gazette.

In addition to the custodial term, the monarch will serve three years of supervised release, pay a mandatory $400 special assessment, and forfeit assets linked to the fraud. 

Prosecutors successfully moved to dismiss counts two to five and seven to 10 of the indictment, reducing his potential exposure to decades behind bars. Still, Judge Boyko ordered that a restitution of $4,408,543.38 be entered against him, a sum he must pay to the victims. 

The Apetu is expected to self-report to the U.S. Marshals Service at a later date to begin his sentence.

Mr Oloyede, 62, had pleaded guilty earlier this year after prosecutors presented evidence that he used six companies to fraudulently obtain loans under the U.S. Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) schemes — both emergency relief packages rolled out during the coronavirus pandemic.

He allegedly forged documents, inflated payrolls, and diverted millions meant to keep struggling American businesses afloat.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested him in May 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio, months after he had quietly slipped out of Nigeria. His disappearance from Ipetumodu raised concerns in the community, especially as he missed key traditional festivals, including the Egungun festival and Odun Edi, ceremonies central to the town’s cultural heritage.

Following his arrest, U.S. prosecutors said he laundered part of the illicit proceeds through personal and business accounts, prompting the seizure of a Medina County property and more than $96,000 from one of his company’s bank accounts. He was later granted bail after surrendering his U.S. and Nigerian passports, but remained under travel restrictions until final judgment.

Plea for leniency

In a sentencing memorandum filed on August 19, 2025, and exclusively obtained by The Gazette, his attorneys, Cal Cumpstone and Michael I. Marein, urged the court to temper justice with mercy. They acknowledged his guilt but argued that the global health crisis influenced his poor choices.

“COVID-19 affected all of us differently,” the document quoted his counsel as saying. “Conduct that we would never expect from ourselves or others sometimes manifested itself as we encountered a completely different society. COVID-19 is not an excuse. But it is a factor. Particularly when, as did Joseph, one had to worry that pre-existing health problems could now become fatal if the virus was contracted.”

The lawyers highlighted his previously clean record, noting that the monarch had lived in the United States since the late 1990s, worked as a banker and adjunct professor, and earned a doctorate before returning to Nigeria, where he was crowned Apetu of Ipetumodu in July 2019. 

They described the fraud as a sharp deviation from his history of service and responsibility, stressing that he had shown remorse and fully accepted blame for his actions.

Back home in Osun State, Mr Oloyede’s ordeal has plunged Ipetumodu into uncertainty. His prolonged absence has effectively left the town without an active monarch for over a year, creating a vacuum in traditional leadership. Local chiefs and community leaders have struggled to fill the gap, with some residents quietly raising concerns about succession should his reign be permanently derailed by his conviction abroad.

The embarrassment has also cast a shadow on the state’s traditional council, with many observers noting that it is unusual — if not unprecedented — for a Yoruba monarch to be tried and jailed in a foreign country for financial crimes.

Mr Oloyede, a father of six and foster parent to other children, is among a growing list of Nigerian elites implicated in fraud-related prosecutions in the United States. His sentencing highlights ongoing concerns about the abuse of U.S. COVID-19 relief programs, which saw billions lost to fraud during the pandemic.

For Ipetumodu, however, the case has taken on a more personal dimension. Many locals who had celebrated his installation in 2019 as a symbol of progress now grapple with the reality that their traditional ruler will serve time in a foreign prison.