A United States District Court has sentenced a 37-year-old Nigerian man, Henry Ezeonyido, to 27 months in prison for his involvement in a $1 million insurance fraud scheme.
According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday, Ezeonyido carried out the fraud between October 2019 and February 2022. During that time, he submitted false health insurance claims to five insurance companies, claiming he had suffered various accidents while traveling overseas.
Investigations revealed that Ezeonyido also submitted similar fraudulent claims on behalf of at least seven other individuals, resulting in over $1 million in total claims.
The statement noted, “Ezeonyido was arrested and charged in July 2024 alongside co-conspirators Brendon Ashe, Aqiyla Atherton, Darline Cobbler, and Ariel Lambert. He was later indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2024. All four co-defendants pleaded guilty and received probation sentences.”
From October 2019 to February 2022, Ezeonyido and his accomplices allegedly filed claims for expensive medical treatments they claimed to have received and paid for out-of-pocket while overseas. These claims involved fabricated stories of traumatic injuries, such as stabbings, gunshot wounds, and hit-and-run accidents, which supposedly required hospitalization abroad. However, authorities confirmed that in most cases, the individuals were actually in the United States at the time of the alleged incidents.
To support the bogus claims, Ezeonyido created fake medical records, fabricated bank documents to show payments to foreign hospitals, and even forged police reports when the injuries involved criminal incidents.
The insurance companies ultimately paid approximately $655,313 to the individuals involved. Some of these individuals reportedly paid kickbacks to Ezeonyido for orchestrating the fraud.
“As a result of these fraudulent claims, the victim insurance companies were billed over $1 million for non-existent services, resulting in total payouts of approximately $655,313,” the statement explained. “After receiving these payments, Ashe, Cobbler, Lambert, and others paid part of the money to Ezeonyido and other co-conspirators, including Atherton, who recruited new participants in exchange for a share of the proceeds. In total, Ezeonyido retained approximately $396,998 from the fraud.”
Ezeonyido pleaded guilty in February 2025 to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and six counts of health care fraud.
He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin to 27 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. In addition, he was ordered to pay $655,313 in restitution and forfeit $396,998 in criminal proceeds.
