Nigerian national extradited from the UK to U.S. arraigned for wire fraud involving stolen tax information

A 38-year-old Nigerian citizen, Onomen Uduebor, who was arrested and extradited from the UK to the United States of America on an indictment in the Western District of Washington was arraigned for wire fraud involving stolen tax information.  Uduebor was arraigned on Friday, March 7, 2025, in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller announced in a statement. Uduebor is charged in a three-count indictment related to a scheme to steal and use income tax data for fraud.  The 2019 indictment was unsealed on Friday for Uduebors first appearance.  Uduebor entered a plea of not guilty and trial is scheduled before U.S. District Judge James L. Robart on May 12, 2025. This defendant allegedly participated in a conspiracy that involved tricking companies around the United States, including a Tukwila-based company, into providing W-2 information on their employees. Then the conspirators filed fake tax returns in the employees names, claiming large refunds and causing chaos for those whose Social Security numbers had been stolen, said Acting U.S. Attorney Miller. According to the indictment, between February 2016 and April 2017, the conspirators created false emails that appeared to come from a company executive asking the Human Resources Department for the W-2 data.  The conspirators manipulated the email so that any reply would go to an email address that they controlled. The conspirators then used the information from the W-2s to file more than 300 bogus tax returns claiming more than $1 million in tax refunds. The conspirators targeted companies across the U.S. in this scheme. Uduebor is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The wire fraud charges are punishable by up to twenty years in prison. Aggravated Identity Theft is punishable by a mandatory minimum two years in prison to run consecutive to any sentence imposed on the wire fraud counts. The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations.  A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI). The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Miriam Hinman.  Uduebor was arrested in the United Kingdom in September 2023.  The U.S. Department of Justices Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance with the extradition process.  The post Nigerian national extradited from the UK to U.S. arraigned for wire fraud involving stolen tax information appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.