A United States federal court has sentenced a Nigerian national, Matthew Akande, to eight years in prison for orchestrating a cyber fraud scheme that defrauded the U.S. government of more than $1.3 million through fraudulent tax filings.
Akande, 37, received the sentence on Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, according to a statement published on the U.S. government’s official website.
In addition to the prison term, the court ordered him to pay $1,393,230 in restitution and to serve three years of supervised release after completing his jail sentence.
According to U.S. authorities, Akande, who had been living in Mexico before his arrest, was extradited to the United States to face prosecution over the cyber fraud scheme.
The statement noted that he was arrested in October 2024 at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom following a request by U.S. officials and was later extradited to the United States on March 5, 2025.
Akande had earlier been indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2022 on several charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, unauthorized access to protected computers, theft of government funds, and aggravated identity theft.
Prosecutors said that between June 2016 and June 2021, Akande and his accomplices carried out phishing attacks targeting tax preparation firms in Massachusetts.
The group reportedly sent fraudulent emails disguised as inquiries from potential clients in order to trick employees into installing remote-access malware, including a program known as Warzone RAT.
Investigators explained that the malware enabled the hackers to gain access to sensitive information stored on the firms’ computer systems, including clients’ personal identification details and previous tax records.
Using the stolen data, the suspects filed more than 1,000 fraudulent tax returns in the names of unsuspecting taxpayers, requesting over $8.1 million in tax refunds.
Authorities said the refunds were directed to bank accounts opened by accomplices in the United States, who withdrew the funds and transferred a portion to associates in Mexico under Akande’s direction.
In total, investigators confirmed that the syndicate successfully obtained more than $1.3 million in fraudulent tax refunds before the scheme was uncovered.