Two Nigerian men used Trojan horse malware to pilfer personal information from tax preparation services and filed more than $8 million worth of bogus IRS refund claims using the stolen identities, authorities revealed Thursday.
One, Kehinde Oyetunji, has already reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors for his role, while Matthew Akande had his charges unsealed this week.
The scam used phishing emails sent to at least five tax preparation firms in Massachusetts. The emails tricked firms into downloading the Warzone RAT malware, which let the fraudsters collect personal taxpayer information off the firms’ computers.
They then filed bogus tax returns under those stolen identities, prosecutors said.
Authorities charged Mr. Akande with filing more than 1,000 bogus returns between 2016 and 2021.
Authorities said Mr. Akande was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport on Oct. 15, and the U.S. is seeking extradition based on an indictment handed up in Boston in July 2022.
That indictment also mentions at least three known co-conspirators, though they’re not identified by name.
Authorities say those three and Oyetunji helped launder the money by shipping it to Mexico, taking a cut for themselves.
The scam applied for $8.1 million in bogus refunds and collected more than $1.3 million.
Prosecutors identified Mr. Akanda as being from Nigeria and Mexico. Oyetunji was listed as being from Nigeria and North Dakota.
Oyetunji pleaded guilty in December 2022. His case was kept under wraps until the case against Mr. Akanda was made public.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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