$11m fraud: US moves to revoke Nigerian’s citizenship

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The United States Department of Justice says it has filed a lawsuit seeking to revoke the citizenship of a Nigerian, Emmanuel Oluwatosin Kazeem, who was jailed in 2018 over an $11m fraud.

PUNCH Metro learnt from a statement obtained on the DoJ website on Thursday that Kazeem was convicted on 19 counts bordering on wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.

According to the statement, in May 2013, a victim in Medford, Oregon, notified the Internal Revenue Service that false federal and Oregon state tax returns had been filed electronically using her and her husband’s personal identifying information, including Social Security numbers and dates of birth.

The statement noted that an IRS investigation led to the execution of search warrants at residences in Illinois, Maryland, and Georgia, as well as multiple email and instant messaging accounts used by Kazeem and other co-conspirators. Punch