NIGERIAN MAN JAILED EIGHT YEARS IN U.S. FOR $1.3M TAX FRAUD SCHEME
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Agency Report
A Nigerian national, Matthew A. Akande, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for orchestrating a cyber fraud scheme that targeted tax preparation firms and defrauded the United States government of more than $1.3 million.
The sentence was handed down on Tuesday by Indira Talwani at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, according to a statement published on an official U.S. government website on Wednesday.
Akande, 37, who had been living in Mexico, was also ordered to pay $1,393,230 in restitution and will serve three years of supervised release following his prison term.
Authorities said Akande was arrested in October 2024 at Heathrow Airport at the request of U.S. officials. He was extradited to the United States on March 5, 2025.
He had earlier been indicted in July 2022 on multiple charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, unauthorized computer access, theft of government funds and aggravated identity theft.
According to prosecutors, a federal grand jury charged him with one count of conspiracy to obtain unauthorized access to protected computers in furtherance of fraud and theft of government money, one count of wire fraud, four counts of unauthorized computer access, 13 counts of theft of government funds, and 14 counts of aggravated identity theft.
Investigators said that between June 2016 and June 2021, Akande and his accomplices used phishing emails and malicious software to infiltrate computer systems belonging to tax preparation firms in Massachusetts.
The emails were disguised as messages from prospective clients but were designed to trick recipients into installing remote-access trojan malware, including a program known as Warzone RAT.
Using the stolen data, the group accessed clients’ personally identifiable information (PII) and prior-year tax records. They subsequently filed more than 1,000 fraudulent tax returns seeking over $8.1 million in refunds.
The fraudulent refunds were directed into bank accounts opened by co-conspirators in the United States. Once the funds were deposited, the money was withdrawn in cash and a portion transferred to contacts in Mexico at Akande’s direction.
Prosecutors said the scheme successfully yielded more than $1.3 million in fraudulent refunds over a five-year period.
The case underscores U.S. authorities’ continued efforts to combat cyber-enabled financial crimes and prosecute individuals involved in transnational fraud schemes.
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