Houston man sent to prison for depositing another person’s COVID-19 stimulus check into his account

HOUSTON – A 50-year-old man was sentenced to prison today after being convicted of COVID-19 stimulus check fraud.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, Ndem Oduu admitted to depositing another person’s stimulus check into his own account, thereby defrauding him of $1,200 that was supposed to help the victim weather economic hardship during the pandemic of COVID-19.

Additionally, Oduu was found guilty of attempting to defraud the government through other means. In fact, evidence heard at his hearing included “thousands of pages” in Oduu’s apartment that laid out his scheme to commit fraud via loans and tax credits.

After his trial, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Eskridge sentenced Oduu to 45 months in federal prison, as well as paying $1,867 in restitution costs.

After serving his sentence, Oduu will serve three years of supervised release.

At the time of writing this article, the 50-year-old is currently in detention and will soon be transferred to a federal facility.