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A 37-year-old Nigerian named Henry Ezeonyido has been sentenced to 27 months in prison by a United States District Court for his involvement in a $1 million insurance fraud scheme.
According to a statement from the US Department of Justice on Thursday, Ezeonyido committed the fraud between October 2019 and February 2022.
During this time, he submitted false health insurance claims to five different insurance companies, falsely asserting that he was in several accidents while traveling abroad. Additionally, he filed similar fraudulent claims for seven others, resulting in over $1 million in claims.
The statement indicated that Ezeonyido was arrested in July 2024 alongside co-conspirators Brendon Ashe, Aqiyla Atherton, Darline Cobbler, and Ariel Lambert.
He was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2024, while all his co-defendants pleaded guilty to their parts in the fraud and received probation.
“From around October 2019 to February 2022, Ezeonyido submitted fraudulent claims for costly medical treatments that he and at least seven others purportedly received while abroad, which they claimed to have paid for out-of-pocket.
Many of these claims involved fabricated serious injuries like stabbings, gunshot wounds, and hit-and-run accidents, despite the fact that the individuals were in the United States when these alleged incidents occurred,” the statement revealed.
Ezeonyido was said to have forged medical records to demonstrate the supposed treatment received, created false bank records to indicate payments to international medical facilities, and fabricated police reports for claims concerning fake traumatic injuries.
Following the fraudulent claims, the insurance companies disbursed around $655,313 to those involved, some of whom allegedly paid Ezeonyido kickbacks for his assistance in processing their claims.
“As a direct result of these fraudulent activities, the health insurance companies were billed over $1 million for services that never occurred, leading to payouts totaling about $655,313.
Upon receipt of these payments, Ashe, Cobbler, Lambert, and others shared a portion of their earnings with Ezeonyido and other co-conspirators, including Atherton, who facilitated the scheme for a share of their claims. Ezeonyido ultimately kept approximately $396,998 from the fraudulent proceeds.”
After being arraigned before US District Judge Leo Sorokin, Ezeonyido pleaded guilty to the charges and received a 27-month prison sentence. In February 2025, he entered a guilty plea for one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and six counts of health care fraud.
U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin sentenced Ezeonyido to 27 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
He was also ordered to repay $655,313 in restitution and forfeit $396,998 in criminal proceeds, as concluded in the statement.
