The United States Department of Justice has launched a high-profile legal bid to strip a Nigerian-born man of his American citizenship, years after he was convicted of masterminding one of the largest tax fraud conspiracies in U.S. history
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil denaturalization complaint on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, against Emmanuel Oluwatosin Kazeem in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Kazeem, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Nigeria, was the architect of a sophisticated criminal enterprise that utilized stolen identities from over 259,000 victims to file more than 10,000 fraudulent tax returns. The scheme, which operated between 2012 and 2015, successfully diverted over $11.6 million in federal refunds into Kazeem’s control. Though he was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2017, the DOJ noted that his sentence was commuted by former President Joe Biden in December 2024. Under the current administration, Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate emphasized that Kazeem’s prior criminal acts—and his alleged failure to disclose them during his naturalization process—render his citizenship illegitimate.
Beyond the tax fraud itself, the government’s complaint introduces explosive new allegations regarding Kazeem’s immigration history. Prosecutors contend that Kazeem entered into a “sham marriage” with a U.S. citizen specifically to secure permanent residency (a green card), a foundational requirement for his later naturalization. Furthermore, the DOJ alleges that while still legally married to his first wife, he entered into a second marriage with another woman, a statutory bar to the “good moral character” required for citizenship. The investigation revealed that the proceeds of his fraud were used for lavish lifestyle expenses, including a $200,000 down payment on a Maryland home and the attempted development of a $6 million four-star hotel in Lagos, Nigeria.
This legal action signals a renewed focus by the Justice Department’s Civil Division on “denaturalization” as a tool for immigration enforcement. Unlike criminal cases, civil denaturalization does not carry a jail sentence but results in the total loss of U.S. rights and immediate eligibility for deportation. Assistant Attorney General Shumate stated, “The Trump Administration will not permit wrongdoers to retain the U.S. citizenship that they were never entitled to in the first place.” If the court rules in favor of the government, Kazeem will be stripped of his status and likely returned to Nigeria, where he was already linked to over 700 wire transfers of stolen funds totaling nearly $700,000.
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