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CINCINNATI – A Florida man who conspired to steal identities to fraudulently obtain credit and COVID-19 relief funds was sentenced in federal court here today to 96 months in prison.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang sentenced Oluwaseyi Akinyemi, a/k/a “Paddy Linkin”, a/k/a “Joseph Kadin”, age 35, of Hyattsville, Maryland, yesterday to eight years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release for two counts of mail fraud relating to a social media advanced fee fraud scheme that targeted elderly victims. Judge Chuang also ordered Akinyemi to pay $486,119.07 in restitution to his victims.

A former United States Postal Service (USPS) mail carrier pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for scheming to steal more than $250,000 in unemployment insurance (UI) funds by making false claims of COVID-related job losses and for stealing UI debit cards intended for other people on his mail route.

Law enforcement today arrested six defendants charged in a federal grand jury indictment alleging they fraudulently obtained more than $2 million in COVID-19-related unemployment insurance (UI) benefits by submitting fraudulent applications in the names of others that falsely asserted, among other things, that the claimants were salon and barbershop workers rendered jobless because of the pandemic.

A rapper who boasted in a YouTube music video about getting rich by committing pandemic-related unemployment benefits fraud has agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud and firearms charges, the Justice Department announced today.