A U.S. court sentenced Nigeria-born Matthew Akande to eight years in prison for orchestrating a Mexico-based phishing and tax fraud scheme that stole $1.3 million from the U.S. government.
A United States court has sentenced Matthew A. Akande, a Nigerian national based in Mexico, to eight years in prison for defrauding the United States government of $1.3 million through fraudulent tax returns filed using stolen taxpayers’ personally identifiable information. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Mr Akande and his co-conspirators submitted more than 1,000 false tax returns seeking over $8.1 million in refunds over five years and obtained about $1.3 million, after stealing taxpayers’ data from Massachusetts tax preparation firms via phishing emails and remote access trojan malware, including Warzone RAT.
Sentenced by Indira Talwani at a federal court in Boston, he was also ordered to pay $1,393,230 in restitution, following his arrest at Heathrow Airport in October 2024, extradition to the United States in March 2025, and conviction on multiple fraud, computer intrusion, money laundering and aggravated identity theft charges. The DoJ said the scheme involved sending phishing emails disguised as client requests to trick firms into installing malware that enabled access to client data, which was then used to file fraudulent tax returns and withdraw refunds.
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