NORFOLK, Va. — A New York man is sentenced to three and a half years in prison for a COVID-19 fraud scheme using stolen identities. A Norfolk resident, who also serves as a judge on the city's Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, was one of at least 20 victims in this case.
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), 50-year-old Obinna Nwafor of New York engaged in a scheme to get pandemic loans using other people's identities.
In Sept. 2020, a Norfolk resident received a statement saying that she owed a payment on a loan received under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program. The resident reported this information to law enforcement, which led to further investigation.
After looking into the statement, it was revealed that an application for a $150,000 EIDL loan was submitted in August 2020. The application used her name and confidential information including her Social Security number, date of birth and more.
The loan documents were electronically signed in her name, but the money from the loan was distributed to an account that did not belong to her. Instead, it went to a bank account controlled by Nwafor.
Further investigation revealed that the Norfolk resident wasn't the only person affected. Several fraudulent EIDL loans were obtained by Nwafor, including another Virginia resident. He had also received around $300,000 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits in the names of at least 18 other people.
Those funds were distributed across several bank accounts that Nwafor controlled. When told by Wells Fargo that the funds were being returned to the unemployment offices, he frantically tried to convince the bank not to return the funds.
Nwafor was sentenced on Feb. 7.
