A US court docket has sentenced a Nigerian nationwide to greater than 5 years in jail for his function in a scheme that concerned hacking, fraud and identification theft.
The person is Kingsley Uchelue Utulu. In keeping with authorities, since at the very least 2019 Utulu had been a part of a felony scheme that concerned hacking into the methods of US-based tax preparation firms in an effort to steal tax and different data that may very well be used to file fraudulent tax returns.
As a part of the scheme, the cybercriminals stole data on 1000’s of people from a number of tax companies, together with in Texas and New York.
They tried to acquire tax returns totaling roughly $8.4 million, and really managed to acquire at the very least $2.5 million.
The stolen identities had been additionally used to file fraudulent claims with the Small Enterprise Administration’s Financial Damage Catastrophe Mortgage program, which enabled the fraudsters to acquire at the very least $819,000.
Along with a 63-month jail sentence, Utulu has been ordered to pay over $3.6 million in restitution and to forfeit roughly $290,000.
Authorities mentioned Utulu was arrested within the UK and extradited to the US, the identical as Matthew Akande, a Nigerian whose extradition was introduced in March 2025.
Akande, who has but to be sentenced, can also be accused of participating in a scheme that concerned hacking tax preparation corporations. Commercial. Scroll to proceed studying.
Prices towards Akande had been unsealed by the US in November 2024, together with fees towards Kehinde Oyetunji, of North Dakota and Nigeria. Oyetunji has additionally but to be sentenced.
In November 2024, SecurityWeek reported that jail sentences handed out by US courts to Nigerian cybercriminals had surged within the prior months. The sentences ranged between 5 and 26 years.
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