The United States Department of Justice, DoJ, has secured the convictions of two Nigerians, Temitope Bashua and Uchechukwu Gideon Eze, to a combined jail term of four years and three months for their respective roles in various fraud schemes totalling $472,000.

According to different statements obtained on the US DoJ website, the convicts were involved in obtaining money through fraudulent claims and business email compromise.

The first statement revealed that 29-year-old Bashua was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to cyber intrusion, romance fraud, and business email compromise fraud schemes, among others.

It noted that between May 2020 and September 2022, the convict, alongside other co-conspirators, filed fraudulent benefit applications and received more than $290,000.

After his arrest and guilty plea, he was sentenced at a district court on Thursday.

“US District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher sentenced Temitope Bashua, 29, a citizen of Nigeria, to 30 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for his role in a conspiracy and scheme to fraudulently obtain unemployment insurance benefits and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.

“According to his plea agreement, and other court documents, from May 2020 through September 2022, Bashua and others conspired to impersonate victims to obtain money by submitting fraudulent UI benefits claims. Bashua and his co-conspirators used the personally identifiable information without the victims’ knowledge or consent to submit fraudulent applications for UI benefits in Maryland and California.

“Additionally, in October 2020, as part of the conspiracy, co-conspirators submitted two fraudulent EIDL applications to the SBA for fictitious businesses using the PII of identity victims. As a result of the fraudulent EIDL applications, Bashua received more than $290,000 in the US”

In another statement, the US DoJ noted that Eze was sentenced to 21 months and also ordered to pay $182,201 in restitution.

According to the statement, Eze and some co-conspirators who were operating from overseas carried out a business email compromise scheme that defrauded a small business to the tune of $182,200.

It further stated that after the co-conspirators had created a similar business email used by representatives of the company, they proceeded to impersonate the representative by sending emails to other businesses and directing them to make payments into a purportedly new business bank account.