Two Nigerians face 100 years in jail over $100m scam in US

Two Nigerian men, Akinade Raheem and Abayomi Eletu, are facing 50 years in prison each for an alleged multiple tax fraud scheme involving stolen identities to steal more than $100m from the Internal Revenue Service in the United States.

In a statement by the Department of Justice on Wednesday, Raheem and Eletu allegedly conspired with their accomplices to claim fraudulent tax refunds by impersonating accountants and taxpayers.

They allegedly filed more than 300 false tax returns claiming over $100m in refunds from the IRS, with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft and other crimes.

Raheem, 43, and Eletu, 42, residents of the US and the United Kingdom, respectively, obtained identifying information for tax experts and taxpayers between 2018 and 2023. Punch