$1m scam: US court jails Nigerian

US Court

A United States District Court has sentenced a 37-year-old Nigerian, Henry Ezeonyido, to 27 months imprisonment for his role in a $1m insurance fraud.

PUNCH Metro learnt in a statement by the US Department of Justice on Thursday that Ezeonyido perpetrated the fraud between October 2019 and February 2022.

The statement noted that during the period mentioned above, Ezeonyido submitted fraudulent health insurance claims to five insurance companies, claiming that he was involved in a series of accidents while travelling abroad.

The convict was also said to have filed similar fraudulent claims for seven other people, leading to a total of over $1m in claims.

The statement read, “Ezeonyido was arrested and charged in July 2024 along with co-conspirators Brendon Ashe, Aqiyla Atherton, Darline Cobbler and Ariel Lambert. Ezeonyido was later indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2024. All four of Ezeonyido’s co-defendants pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme and were subsequently sentenced to probation.

“From approximately October 2019 to February 2022, Ezeonyido submitted fraudulent health insurance claims – on his behalf and on behalf of at least seven other individuals, including Ashe, Atherton, Cobbler and Lambert – to five different health insurance companies for expensive medical treatment that they purportedly received and paid for out-of-pocket while travelling overseas.

“Many of the claims included fake traumatic injuries such as stabbings, gunshot wounds, and hit-and-run car accidents that the defendants and others purportedly suffered, requiring their hospitalisation abroad. In nearly all instances, the individuals were actually in the United States at the time of the purported international medical events.” Punch