A US court has sentenced a Nigerian national to more than five years in prison for his role in a scheme that involved hacking, fraud and identity theft.
The man is Kingsley Uchelue Utulu. According to authorities, since at least 2019 Utulu had been part of a criminal scheme that involved hacking into the systems of US-based tax preparation companies in an effort to steal tax and other information that could be used to file fraudulent tax returns.
As part of the scheme, the cybercriminals stole information on thousands of individuals from several tax businesses, including in Texas and New York.
They attempted to obtain tax returns totaling approximately $8.4 million, and actually managed to obtain at least $2.5 million.
The stolen identities were also used to file fraudulent claims with the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which enabled the fraudsters to obtain at least $819,000.
In addition to a 63-month prison sentence, Utulu has been ordered to pay over $3.6 million in restitution and to forfeit roughly $290,000.
Authorities said Utulu was arrested in the UK and extradited to the US, the same as Matthew Akande, a Nigerian whose extradition was announced in March 2025.
Akande, who has yet to be sentenced, is also accused of taking part in a scheme that involved hacking tax preparation firms.
Charges against Akande were unsealed by the United States in November 2024, along with charges against Kehinde Oyetunji, of North Dakota and Nigeria. Oyetunji has also yet to be sentenced.
In November 2024, SecurityWeek reported that prison sentences handed out by US courts to Nigerian cybercriminals had surged in the prior months. The sentences ranged between 5 and 26 years.
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