A Nigerian man, Adepoju Salako, has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in the United States for his involvement in a wire fraud scheme linked to the 2022 Permanent Fund Dividend programme.

According to the report on the official US website, Salako, a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was convicted for orchestrating a scheme to defraud the Alaska Department of Revenue’s Permanent Fund Dividend programme.

The 33-year-old was sentenced on Tuesday after court documents detailed how he carried out the fraudulent activities between January and February 2022.

The development was disclosed in a statement released by the United States Department of Justice on Friday.

According to the statement, Salako obtained the personal information of legitimate Alaska residents and used the details to submit seven separate applications in a bid to illegally obtain their Permanent Fund Dividend payments.

The Department of Justice noted that Salako had never been a resident of Alaska and had never visited the state until he arrived there for his sentencing.

Court documents further revealed that he created multiple email accounts under his control for each victim whose personal information he fraudulently obtained.

Salako pleaded guilty to seven counts of wire fraud.

The court also ruled that his 18-month sentence would run concurrently with another sentence tied to a separate COVID-19 relief fraud and international money laundering case in the District of Colorado.

In the related case, Salako was sentenced to six and a half years imprisonment and ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution to victims affected by the crimes.