Onetime West Michigan Woman of the Year used stolen preschool funds for travel, wedding, ghost payroll: prosecutors

A woman who earned a West Michigan Woman of the Year award will serve over five years in federal prison for a $1.4 million fraud scheme that misdirected money meant for preschool services, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan said. 

Nkechy Ezeh, 61, of Kent County, was sentenced on Wednesday in U.S. District Court to 70 months on fraud and a concurrent 60 months for evading income taxes, the district attorney's office said. She was ordered to start serving the prison time immediately.  

Ezeh was also ordered to pay a total of $1.4 million in restitution to the victims of the scheme, along with $390,174 to the Internal Revenue Service. 

Her nonprofit organization, Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative, shuttered in 2023, with 35 people laid off as a result, the district attorney's office said. 

"This case underscores the seriousness of misusing federal grant funds for personal gain," said Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ethridge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. 

Chief U.S. District Judge Hala Y. Jarbou, who imposed the sentence, characterized Ezeh as "a fraud and a thief," and described the scheme as "brazen and widespread," according to the district attorney's office. 

"Nkechy Ezeh's greed is beyond reprehensible," said Timothy VerHey, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan. "She stole taxpayer and private-donor dollars meant for low-income children in our community. Instead of helping kids, she spent that money on herself. The stolen money could have supported hundreds of West Michigan children and their families."

A co-conspirator in this investigation was sentenced in November 2025 to 54 months in federal prison for her role in the scheme, the district attorney's office said. 

Ezeh, who was the founder and CEO of Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative, was a 2018 West Michigan Brilliant Woman of the Year honoree from the West Michigan Woman magazine and online community. 

She was also a two-time appointee to Michigan's Early Childhood Investment Corporation's Executive Committee. 

The Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Early Head Start program, the U.S. Department of Education, and three of Michigan's largest charitable organizations. The agency was expected to provide meals, transportation, funding, advocacy, and other services to children in preschools located in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Kent County, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek areas. 

As a result of the agency's closing, the district attorney's office said, "many West Michigan preschools lost funding, and needy children lost valuable resources." 

ELNC laid off 35 employees without any notice amid the closing, the district attorney's office said. 

In a sentencing report to the court, the U.S. Attorney's Office said that Ezeh used the stolen money to fund her lifestyle, pay for a family member's wedding, and to travel to Hawaii, Europe, and Africa.  

"She placed her family members on a ghost payroll that caused ELNC to pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars for little or no work, and she used money mules to wire hundreds of thousands of dollars of stolen money to her family in Nigeria," the agency added. 

The case was investigated by HHS-OIG and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.