Nigerian pandemic fraud: Man sentenced for stealing thousands of identities, millions of dollars

A Nigerian man residing in Canada was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 54 months in prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after he defrauded programs intended for aid during the pandemic of millions of dollars.

Fatiu Ismaila Lawal, 46, stole thousands of workers’ identities to submit more than 1,700 claims for pandemic unemployment benefits across 25 different states, including Washington, according to the Department of Justice. The claims totaled $25 million, but Lawal, alongside co-defendant Sakiru Olanrewaju Ambali, 46, obtained approximately $2.7 million, primarily from pandemic unemployment benefits.

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When Lawal pleaded guilty in September 2024, he admitted he personally submitted claims for $1,345,472, using four internet domain names and more than 800 different email addresses. Lawal has been ordered to pay the $1.3 million back.

“This defendant made it his full-time job to defraud the U.S. for years before the pandemic, but he kicked it into high gear once critical aid to American workers was flowing,” U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman said during Lawal’s sentencing. “His fraud included using stolen identities of Washington residents to file dozens of unemployment claims in the first few weeks of the pandemic, contributing to the flood of fraudulent claims that caused the state to pause all unemployment payments. In this way, his fraud harmed all Washingtonians who desperately needed assistance at the onset of the pandemic.”

Additionally, Lawal used stolen personal information to submit approximately 3,000 income tax returns for $7.5 million in refunds. However, after the IRS suspected some of these claims as fraudulent, the department only paid out $30,000.

“While Mr. Lawal may not have secured the $7.5 million he sought from fraudulent tax refunds, each of the 3,000 returns he filed represents a life he disrupted,” Adam Jobes, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Seattle Field Office, said.

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Prosecutors argued that Lawal should be sentenced to 65 months in prison for his crimes.

“During major disasters and nationwide emergencies, it is particularly important for the government to be able to disburse aid quickly to real victims to mitigate the impact of the crisis,” prosecutors argued. “The actual monetary loss to the government comes secondary to the fact that a real person or business behind each stolen identity had difficulty accessing assistance because a fraudulent claim was already paid in their identity. These difficulties were further compounded by the onslaught of fraudulent claims that clogged the infrastructure in place to distribute the aid.”

The prosecuting team claimed the estimated loss from fraudulent pandemic unemployment claims was, in total, more than $100 billion.

The co-defendant, Ambali, also a Nigerian, was sentenced to 42 months in prison in March 2024.

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest and producer of the Seattle Seahawks podcast, The Reset with Gee Scott. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.