{"id":72348,"date":"2025-02-20T08:32:57","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T08:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/?p=72348"},"modified":"2025-02-20T08:33:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T08:33:31","slug":"72348","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/2025\/02\/20\/72348\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI arrests US-based Nigerian pastor for multimillion-dollar COVID-19 fraud, links him to detained monarch, Apetu of Ipetumodu"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"Nigerian<\/p>\n

The FBI has arrested Nigerian Pastor Edward Abiodun Oluwasanmi for\u00a0conspiring with Osun monarch, Oba Joseph Oloyede<\/a>, to defraud the U.S. government of $4.2 million COVID-19 relief funds.<\/p>\n

Mr Oluwasanmi, like the Apetu of Ipetumodu, also submitted forged documents to apply for the COVID-19 loans meant to lessen the financial burden of struggling businesses during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Mr Oluwasanmi used his three companies -Dayspring Property Incorporated, Dayspring Holdings and Dayspring Transportation – to obtain millions of dollars and subsequently diverted them for his own personal expenses, in breach of U.S. federal laws.<\/p>\n

The U.S.-based Nigerian pastor was indicted for fraud on a 13-count charge and arrested in Cleveland in April. The suspected clergy conman was later released on a $20,000 bail on the condition that he appears in court for trial and serve out his sentences if handed prison time.<\/p>\n

In September 2020, Mr Oluwasanmi did a wire transfer of about $221,880 to pay for a commercial property on Soyth Freen Road, South Euclid in Ohio.<\/p>\n

On October 26, 2021, he wired $1 million COVID-19 funds to Dayspring Transportation (his company) brokerage account.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors already seized about $620,000 from the Nigerian pastor but were also seeking a forfeiture of the confiscated sum and other properties acquired with the proceeds of fraud.<\/p>\n

FBI seized $599,250 from Mr Oluwasanmi\u2019s Dayspring Transportation account with Fidelity Investments ending in \u20135800 on April 5, 2024.<\/p>\n

Almost $20,000 was seized in the Nigerian pastor\u2019s Dayspring Property account ending with \u20143548 in Key Bank, on the same day.<\/p>\n

Mr Olanrewaju\u2019s U.S. and Nigerian passports were confiscated to guarantee his appearance for trial.<\/p>\n

Per his bail terms, he would be re-arrested if he missed any appearance at the court for his trial.<\/p>\n

Mr Oluwasanmi and the\u00a0Osun monarch\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0 fraud cases add to the already-long list of\u00a0 Nigerian fraudsters convicted and languishing in U.S. jails.<\/p>\n

Ogun Governor Dapo Abiodun\u2019s associate,\u00a0Bidemi Rufai, suffered a similar fate<\/a>\u00a0and was in December released from Fort Dix correctional facility where had served out his jail term for fraud.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>The FBI has arrested Nigerian Pastor Edward Abiodun Oluwasanmi for\u00a0conspiring with Osun monarch, Oba Joseph Oloyede, to defraud the U.S. government of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[168],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-72348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-covid-19"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Pastor-Edward-Abiodun-Oluwasanmi.png","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72348"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72351,"href":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72348\/revisions\/72351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/positivelysharing.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}