A United States federal court in Boston has sentenced a Nigerian national, Matthew A. Akande, to eight years in prison for orchestrating a cyber-enabled tax fraud scheme that targeted Massachusetts tax preparation firms and siphoned millions of dollars in fraudulent refunds.
Akande, 37, who had been living in Mexico before his arrest, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to eight years’ imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release. The court also ordered him to pay $1,393,230 in restitution.
He was arrested in October 2024 at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom at the request of U.S. authorities and was extradited to the United States on March 5, 2025.
In a statement announcing the sentence, United States Attorney Leah B. Foley said the conviction underscores the government’s resolve to pursue cybercriminals across borders.
Akande had been indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2022 on multiple charges, including conspiracy to obtain unauthorized access to protected computers in furtherance of fraud and to commit theft of government money and money laundering; wire fraud; four counts of unauthorized access to protected computers in furtherance of fraud; 13 counts of theft of government money; and 14 counts of aggravated identity theft.
According to court documents, between June 2016 and June 2021, Akande and his accomplices stole taxpayers’ personally identifiable information (PII) and used it to file fraudulent tax returns in victims’ names, seeking refunds from the U.S. government.
The scheme involved sophisticated phishing attacks and computer intrusions targeting five Massachusetts tax preparation firms. Fraudulent emails, disguised as inquiries from prospective clients, were sent to the firms. In reality, the emails were designed to trick recipients into downloading remote access trojan malware, including a programme known as Warzone RAT.
Using the malware, Akande gained unauthorized access to clients’ sensitive data and prior-year tax records. The stolen information was then used to submit fraudulent tax returns directing refunds into bank accounts opened by co-conspirators in the United States.
Once the refunds were issued, the co-conspirators withdrew the funds in cash and transferred a portion to third parties in Mexico at Akande’s direction, retaining the remainder for themselves.
Investigators said Akande and his accomplices filed more than 1,000 fraudulent tax returns over approximately five years, seeking over $8.1 million in refunds. They successfully obtained more than $1.3 million before the scheme was uncovered.
Announcing the sentence, Foley, alongside Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston Division, and Thomas Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston, emphasized the coordinated effort behind the prosecution.
“The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs coordinated with authorities in the United Kingdom to secure the extradition of Akande,” the statement said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Holcomb of the Criminal Division prosecuted the case.
Federal authorities urged businesses that suspect they have been targeted by cyberattacks to file complaints with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov. Taxpayers and tax preparation firms that believe they have been victims of phishing attacks were advised to forward suspicious emails to [email protected].
