A 29-year-old Nigerian man, Chidozie Collins Obasi, has been declared wanted in the United States for alleged fraud.
The Nigerian is accused of defrauding US hospitals of $31million by offering non-existent COVID-19 ventilators for sale.
This was disclosed in a statement by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), last Friday.
It added that the suspect perpetrated the scheme from Nigeria with the support of co-conspirators abroad between September, 2018 and June, 2020.
Obasi and his accomplices allegedly received more than $31,000,000 through a complicated fraud scheme, the majority coming from the State of New York.
“The scheme alleged in the indictment began in September, 2018, with a spam email campaign that offered phony ‘work from home’ jobs.
“When a person responded to the phony job offer, Obasi or a co-conspirator posed as a representative of a legitimate company, often a supposed medical equipment supplier based outside the United States, and offered the person a job as the company’s U.S. representative with responsibilities, including collecting outstanding invoices.
“An accomplice in Canada, then sent the new ’employee’ counterfeit checks purportedly from customers of the company, and the new ’employee’ deposited the checks, took a commission, and wired the rest of the money to a foreign bank account ostensibly owned by the fake company. Obasi and his co-conspirators obtained more than $1million in this manner.
“In 2020, Obasi went further to pose as a ventilator salesman for an Indonesian medical supply company.
“In approximately March, 2020, soon after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States and ventilators were in high demand, Obasi posed as a representative of an Indonesian-based medical supply company offering ventilators for sale, and claimed to have a large stockpile of ventilators manufactured by a German company.
“Obasi allegedly convinced a medical equipment broker in the U.S. to broker sales of these non-existent ventilators, and ultimately deceived the State of New York into wiring more than $30million for the purchase of ventilators that did not exist.
“He continued to target other potential customers with this same scam, including hospitals.
“Later, in approximately June, 2020, Obasi and his accomplices took advantage of the EID Loan programme by using stolen identities of U.S. citizens to apply for and obtain more than $135,000 in EID Loan proceeds”, the statement read.
According to the indictment sheet, Obasi, who is presently a fugitive, is being charged with “one count of conspiracy to commit email and wire fraud, six counts of email fraud, and 16 counts of wire fraud.”
He faces a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison, a five-year period of supervised release, and a $5,750,000 fine.
He would also be required to make full restitution of the more than $31,000,000 that he allegedly obtained by fraud, if found guilty.