The US Department of Justice has declared wanted a 29-year-old Nigerian, Chidozie Collins Obasi, for an alleged $31 million fraud.
Obasi was alleged to have defrauded US hospitals especially in the State of New York of $31 million by offering phantom COVID-19 ventilators to them.
The US Department of Justice said in a start on Friday that Obasi connived with some others abroad to pull through the massive fraud between September 2018 and June 2020.
The statement signed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, US Attorney Jacqueline Romero, added that Obasi and accomplices got over $31,000,000 in the fraud from State of New York.
It was further stated that Obasi posed as the ventilator salesman for an Indonesian medical supply company in 2020 to facilitate the fraud.
It was stated that alleged was started by the suspect with spam messages which offered non existent “work from home” jobs in 2018.
The indictment sheet indicated that Obasi (now on the run) is facing “one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, six counts of mail fraud and 16 counts of wire fraud.”
It was stated that if found guilty, the suspect will face a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison, a five-year period of supervised release, and a $5,750,000 fine and would also be required to make full restitution of the more than $31,000,000 that he allegedly obtained by fraud if found guilty.
The statement gave insight into the operational pattern of the fraud network:
“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 on 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 $1 million 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 $30 million 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.”