Abiola Femi Quadri, a Nigerian man, has been sentenced to 135 months in federal prison in the United States for swindling the states of California and Nevada out of $1.3 million in COVID-19 unemployment and disability benefits. He submitted over 100 fake applications using stolen identities and used the illicit gains to construct a nightclub and shopping mall in Nigeria.
Quadri, 43, from Pasadena, received his sentence from United States District Judge George H. Wu on Thursday, July 10, 2025. The judge also ordered him to pay $1,356,229 in restitution and a $35,000 fine.
Quadri, a Nigerian citizen who obtained permanent residency in the U.S. through what he described as a “fake wedding” in messages to a woman who wasn’t his wife, pleaded guilty on January 2 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Quadri, who resides in the San Gabriel Valley, withdrew the fraudulent unemployment and disability benefits at ATMs from 2021 until his arrest in September 2024 at Los Angeles International Airport, where he was about to fly to Nigeria.
During the scheme, Quadri sent at least $500,000 abroad. He also funded the construction of a 120-room resort hotel in Nigeria, the Oyins International, which includes a nightclub, a mall, and other high-end amenities. Quadri failed to disclose his ownership of the hotel as required when completing his financial disclosure to the court.
Investigators found images of 17 counterfeit checks totaling over $3.3 million on Quadri’s phone, along with messages about negotiating the checks. Some checks were made payable to shell businesses held in the names of Quadri’s aliases.
California had also paid Quadri to provide daycare services to developmentally disabled children through his Altadena-based business, Rock of Peace. When agents searched Quadri’s residence, they discovered misappropriated food-aid debit cards belonging to the children.
The United States Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and the California Employment Development Department Investigation Division investigated this case. Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Brown of the Major Frauds Section prosecuted the case.
