The United States Department of Justice says it has filed a lawsuit seeking to revoke the citizenship of a Nigerian, Emmanuel Oluwatosin Kazeem, who was jailed in 2018 over an $11m fraud.
Our correspondent learnt from a statement obtained on the DoJ website on Thursday that Kazeem was convicted on 19 counts bordering on wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.
According to the statement, in May 2013, a victim in Medford, Oregon, notified the Internal Revenue Service that false federal and Oregon state tax returns had been filed electronically using her and her husband’s personal identifying information, including Social Security numbers and dates of birth.
The statement noted that an IRS investigation led to the execution of search warrants at residences in Illinois, Maryland, and Georgia, as well as multiple email and instant messaging accounts used by Kazeem and other co-conspirators.
It continued, “At a Chicago residence, agents seized approximately 150 prepaid debit cards and $50,000 in money orders. In Maryland and Georgia, agents seized more than 50 electronic devices, 40 money orders exceeding $29,000, $14,000 in cash, and numerous prepaid debit cards containing over $12,000 in fraudulent tax refunds.
The search warrants helped agents identify Kazeem as the leader and mastermind of the scheme.
“The scheme resulted in the conspirators possessing stolen personal identifying information of more than 259,000 victims. Kazeem purchased more than 91,000 identities from a Vietnamese hacker who originated from an Oregon company’s private database.
“The company provided pre-employment and volunteer background checks for thousands of clients. Kazeem divided the identities into batches and shared them with other co-conspirators, which were then used them to file fraudulent tax returns between 2012 and 2015.”
The statement added that investigations revealed that Kazeem trained and directed other co-conspirators, including his younger brother, Michael Oluwasegun Kazeem, to use stolen identities to obtain thousands of electronic filing PINs to bypass IRS authentication procedures.
It added that Kazeem and his accomplices acquired over 19,500 E-File PINs during the conspiracy and used taxpayers’ identities to gain unauthorised access to IRS transcripts, while stolen prepaid debit cards were used to receive tax refunds.
It further stated, “In total, Kazeem was linked to 10,139 fraudulent federal tax returns attempting to obtain over $91m in refunds and successfully receiving over $11.6m.
“Refunds were withdrawn from the debit cards, and at least 2,000 wire transfers totalling over $2.1m were sent to Nigeria. Over 700 of those transfers, amounting to more than $690,000, were directly linked to Kazeem.
“Kazeem used the proceeds to make a nearly $200,000 down payment on a newly constructed house and to purchase a $175,000 townhouse, both in Maryland. His average monthly credit card payment between 2012 and 2015 exceeded $8,300. He also attempted to use the funds to develop a $6m four-star hotel in Lagos.”
The statement added that in May 2015, Kazeem transferred the townhouse to his sister in Nigeria for $10 and also added her to the deed of his Maryland residence for the same amount before his arrest the following day.
The DoJ said Kazeem was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment in 2018 and ordered to pay more than $12m in restitution, but his sentence was later commuted and he was released from prison by former US President, Joe Biden.
In the fresh suit, the department alleged that Kazeem’s actions disqualified him from lawful naturalisation.
“The complaint alleges that Kazeem’s fraud scheme, committed before and after his naturalisation, along with the concealment of his crimes, precluded him from obtaining citizenship lawfully.
“It also alleges that Kazeem engaged in a sham marriage to obtain permanent resident status and later married a second woman, further disqualifying him from naturalisation,” the statement added.
The move comes amid renewed immigration enforcement under the administration of Donald Trump, which has reiterated its stance against criminal migrants through crackdowns and deportations
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