Men sentenced to 8 years in $1.3 million computer intrusion and tax fraud scheme

Matthew A. Akande, a Nigerian national, was sentenced by a U.S. District Court to eight years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for his role in a scheme to break into Massachusetts tax preparation firms’ computer networks and file fraudulent tax returns. The operation generated over $1.3 million in fraudulent tax refunds.

“Between in or about June 2016 and June 2021, Akande worked with others to steal money from the United States government using taxpayers’ personally identifiable information (PII) to file fraudulent tax returns in the taxpayers’ names,” prosecutors stated.

In July 2022, a federal grand jury indicted Akande on one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to protected computers to commit fraud, theft of government funds, and money laundering, one count of wire fraud, four counts of unauthorized access to protected computers to commit fraud, 13 counts of theft of government funds, and 14 counts of aggravated identity theft.

Fraudulent phishing emails were sent to five Massachusetts tax preparation firms to carry out the scheme. The emails appeared to come from prospective clients seeking tax preparation services and were used to trick the firms into downloading remote access trojan malware, including a variant known as Warzone RAT. By doing so, Akande obtained the PII and prior year tax information of the firms’ clients and used that information to file fraudulent tax returns and claim refunds.

Fraudulent tax refunds were deposited into coconspirators’ bank accounts in the United States, who then transferred Akande’s portion to third parties in Mexico.