JUST IN: Osun Govt Breaks Silence, Responds To Apetumodu’s Involvement In US Fraud Case

The Osun State Government has finally reacted to allegations linking the Apetumodu of Ipetumodu, Oba Joseph Olugbenga Oloyede, to a sprawling $4.2 million COVID-19 relief fraud in the United States.

In a statement released on Friday, Olawale Rasheed, spokesperson to Governor Ademola Adeleke, said, “The Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters is closely monitoring the situation and will take necessary action in due course.”

Dtruth Insights recalls that a United States federal court recently ordered the Apetumodu to forfeit millions of dollars in assets and funds to the US government.

This order followed Oba Oloyede’s guilty plea on multiple counts related to the fraudulent scheme.

The 62-year-old monarch, who holds dual Nigerian-American citizenship, was indicted in April 2024 alongside another Nigerian-American, Edward Oluwasanmi.

Both were accused of orchestrating an elaborate scam to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) of COVID-19 relief funds during the height of the pandemic.

On May 5, 2025, Judge Christopher Boyko of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio issued a Preliminary Order of Forfeiture, authorising the federal government to seize various assets linked to the monarch, according to legal filings obtained by Peoples Gazette.

This ruling came after Oba Oloyede entered a plea bargain on April 24, 2025, admitting guilt to 13 charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and defrauding a federal relief programme.

Among the assets listed for forfeiture is a residential property in Medina County, Ohio, purchased in May 2021 under the name of the monarch’s wife, Sherri Oloyede, as well as $96,006.89 held in a JP Morgan Chase bank account registered to Joseph Oloyede and Associates Ltd.

Despite the property being under his wife’s name, both Mr and Mrs Oloyede voluntarily waived their rights to contest the forfeiture as part of their plea deal, which also included waiving the right to appeal the forfeiture or seek restitution in the future.

According to the indictment, the fraudulent activities spanned from April 2020 to February 2022, during which the U.S. government launched emergency relief initiatives such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) programme under the CARES Act.

Federal prosecutors allege that Oloyede exploited these programmes by submitting false loan applications through six companies he owned or controlled. These included Joseph Oloyede & Associates (JO&A), Available Transportation, Available Tax Services, Available Tutors, Available Financial, and several unnamed shell entities.

On October 7, 2021, JO&A was granted $500,000 in relief loans based on falsified tax and payroll records. Two days later, Available Transportation received an identical sum. In June 2020 alone, four of Oloyede’s companies fraudulently obtained over $100,000.

Besides benefiting his own businesses, the Apetumodu reportedly submitted false loan applications for co-conspirators, charging commissions on each successful disbursement.

In total, Oloyede acquired $1.7 million for his companies, assisted others in obtaining an estimated $1.3 million, while Oluwasanmi’s entities received $1.2 million — bringing the total fraud amount to approximately $4.2 million.