Minnesota is hardly the only state whose kindness to migrants from the third world has been abused. Michiganders, too, have apparently opened their arms to foreign-born fraudsters who are more than happy to steal from their host state’s most vulnerable residents.
Nkechy Ezeh, a woke Nigerian who served as a professor at Aquinas College until 2023, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a scheme that bled taxpayers for $1 million and forced an organization that funded early learning initiatives for poor kids to close.
‘Her theft of millions of dollars intended for the most vulnerable of children was brazen, all-encompassing, and unconscionable.’
Ezeh could face up to 20 years in prison for the fraud charge and another five years for tax evasion — a charge to which she also pleaded guilty on Wednesday.
In the years since she migrated to the U.S., Ezeh has complained about “structural racism” while being showered with awards and opportunities.
In 2018, for instance, the West Michigan Woman Brilliance Awards named her woman of the year. In 2020, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed Ezeh to the executive committee of Michigan’s Early Childhood Investment Corporation. In 2021, Aquinas College honored the Nigerian fraudster with its Distinguished Service Award.
The acclaim and upward mobility evidently weren’t enough for Ezeh, who decided to live a jet-set lifestyle at taxpayers’ expense.
According to a 2023 whistleblower complaint, Ezeh used various interrelated organizations to funnel hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to herself as well as to friends and family members while serving as CEO of the Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative.
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Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
The ELNC was a nonprofit in Grand Rapids that Ezeh — who claimed in a 2022 profile that “injustice makes me cry” — founded with the purported aim of providing state “funding, advocacy, and high-quality early childhood educational services to families, children, and neighborhoods that are more ‘at-risk or vulnerable.'”
The complaint filed against Ezeh indicated that she funneled funds from the ELNC with the help of the nonprofit’s bookkeeper, Sharon Killebrew, who secretly paid herself nearly $1 million between June 2017 and April 2023.
Court documents reviewed by WOOD-TV indicate that Ezeh not only created nearly $500,000 in fake invoices with Killebrew but created two fake day-care businesses to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to herself and others.
Ezeh reportedly used some of the stolen taxpayer money to pay for trips to Hawaii, Liberia, and Nigeria for herself and others.
ELNC sued Ezeh and Killebrew in September 2023, but by that time, the damage was done. ELNC had to close its doors on account of the financial impact of the duo’s embezzlement and fraud, which meant the loss of both 35 jobs and a source of support for numerous Michigan families.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Clay Stiffler, the victims of the the fraud committed by Ezeh — who has been touted as a “champion for poor black and brown kids” — “were mostly children of color under the age of five years old, 72% of whom lived below the federal poverty level in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Kent County, Kalamazoo, and Battle Creek.”
Killebrew initially insisted she was innocent, claiming she “didn’t steal anything.” However, when confronted with the mountain of evidence to the contrary, she pleaded guilty in June. Killebrew was sentenced to 54 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution.
Like her accomplice, Ezeh initially denied her guilt but has since admitted to embezzling over $1 million.
The Nigerian fraudster’s attorney, Mary Chartier, told MLive/the Grand Rapids Press, “Ms. Ezeh is committed to taking full responsibility and accountability for her actions. She is deeply remorseful to anyone who has been negatively impacted.”
Amy DeLeeuw, the president of the apparently defunct nonprofit, stated that she was “disappointed by Nkechy Ezeh’s failure to meaningfully articulate the nature and scope of her criminal misconduct during her change of plea hearing today. Her theft of millions of dollars intended for the most vulnerable of children was brazen, all-encompassing, and unconscionable.”
“To date, Nkechy has made no effort to repay any of the millions of dollars she stole from ELNC,” continued DeLeeuw. “I trust Nkechy’s demeanor at today’s hearing did not go unnoticed by Chief Judge Hala Jarbou. I and the board will have more to say in our victim impact statement and look forward to her sentencing hearing on May 13.”
Ezeh has reportedly agreed to pay $1.4 million in restitution to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Early Head Start programs and other agencies that gave grants to the ELNC as well as nearly $400,000 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.
Whitmer’s office did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.
Aquinas College confirmed that Ezeh retired in May 2023 and told Blaze News that the college is not in a position to comment on Ezeh’s outside endeavors.
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