A Nigerian-born United States citizen, Oladapo Fadugba, risks 27 years imprisonment over his alleged involvement in a $690,000 wire fraud scheme and making false declarations to obtain US citizenship.
The Jacksonville Florida-based Fadugba is facing fraud charges after the $690,000 in payments from the federal government meant for the University of Florida Health system reached his bank account instead.
Specifically, an indictment filed April 17 in Jacksonville’s federal court accused Oladapo Fadugba of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and making a false statement in a citizenship proceeding.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs sent UF Health – a network of 12 hospitals and more than 100 doctors’ offices – payments for providing care through the VA’s Civilian Health and Medical Program.
But in October 2020, the agency started getting faxes and emails asking it to change the bank account and routing number it was sending some UF Health payments to, the indictment said.
According to the indictment, the new account numbers belonged to Fadugba, a 40-year-old immigrant from Nigeria listed in State corporation records as being part of a half-dozen firms in fields ranging from trucking and logistics to apparel and insurance adjusting.
The faxes about new bank information included a signature identified as a UF Health executive but “the VA later determined that the facsimiles and emails contained fraudulent information” with bogus signatures ― the root of the identify theft charge – and fake email information, the indictment said.
The court filing recounted pieces of Fadugba’s banking history, noting for example that payments to UF Health topping $65,000 arrived within a few days in December 2022 and that more than $25,000 was moved out of the account within a few days following that.
The filing includes a demand for Fadugba to forfeit $440,000 described as “proceeds from the offense,” but doesn’t appear to address the remainder of the $690,000 in payments to UF Health.
The third charge against Fadugba, making a false statement during a citizenship proceeding, argues that in May 2021 he said he hadn’t committed any crimes he hadn’t been arrested for since being interviewed about becoming a naturalized citizen.
If convicted on all three charges, Fadugba could legally face a prison sentence of up to 27 years but the only mandatory punishment would be two years behind bars for aggravated identity theft, which must be served in addition to time for any other counts. Wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. The false-statement charge, which apparently is based on Fadugba not self-reporting the wire fraud prosecutors said started in 2020, could carry an additional five-year maximum sentence.
Fadugba was arrested April 18 but was released from custody the same day, after an initial court hearing where U.S. Magistrate Patricia Barksdale approved having a federal public defender represent him at his trial.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union
