Abiola Femi Quadri, a Nigerian living in California, has been sentenced to over 11 years in U.S. prison for defrauding pandemic relief funds and funding a luxury project in Nigeria.
Quadri, aged 43 and residing in the San Gabriel Valley, California, fraudulently obtained over $1.3 million in pandemic-related benefits by submitting more than 100 applications using stolen identities.
According to court documents, he channelled a substantial portion of the funds to Nigeria, where he financed the development of a 120-room resort hotel known as Oyins International—a luxury complex that includes a nightclub, shopping mall, and other upscale amenities.
The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge George H. Wu, who also ordered Quadri to pay $1,356,229 in restitution and imposed an additional $35,000 fine. The ruling was disclosed in a statement by Ciaran McEvoy, Public Information Officer of the United States
Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, on Thursday, 10 July 2025.
Quadri, a Nigerian citizen who secured U.S.permanent residency via what he admitted was a “fake wedding,” pleaded guilty on 2 January 2025 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
According to the statement, Quadri began withdrawing the fraudulently obtained benefits from ATMs in 2021 and continued until his arrest in September 2024 at Los Angeles International Airport, where he was attempting to board a flight to Nigeria. Investigators revealed that he had transferred at least $500,000 abroad during the scheme.
Incriminating evidence retrieved from his mobile phone included images of 17 counterfeit cheques totalling more than $3.3 million, and messages relating to the negotiation of those cheques. Several of the cheques were linked to shell companies under aliases used by Quadri.
The investigation also uncovered that while receiving public funds, Quadri failed to disclose his ownership of the Nigerian hotel in his financial disclosures to the court—a clear violation of legal requirements.
Further inspection of his Altadena-based business, Rock of Peace, which ostensibly offered daycare services for developmentally disabled children, revealed misappropriated food-aid debit cards meant for the children in his care.
The case was thoroughly investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and the California Employment Development Department Investigation Division.
Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Brown of the Major Frauds Section led the prosecution.
