Musician Nigeria was sentenced to 40 months in prison for submitting a fake tax claim of more than $ 1N in the US

The US District Court in Seattle, has punished a 39 -year -old Nigerian man, Onuebor onomen, to 40 months in prison after he was found guilty of involvement in the scheme to steal his identity and claim that tax returns reached more than $ 1 million.

Uduebor is also known as also known as Onohi onohi who claims to be a musician, sentenced by Acting US Teal Luthy Miller, after he pleaded guilty to the conspiracy to commit wire fraud and theft of identity that was exacerbated.

US internal income services, in a statement on Wednesday, said that during the trial, District judge James L. Robart commented on the substantial role of Uduebor in fraud activities, which stated:

“He freely participates in fraud and has a substantial role in this scheme. Thirty years is not a young man and he should know better.”

When saying the sentence, Miller described Udubor’s actions as part of a conspiracy involving fraudulent companies throughout the United States to provide W-2 information to their employees including targeting Tukwila-based companies.

Miller explained how, if an employee of human resources refused to share information via email, the conspirators would disguise themselves as the company’s executive to force them to become compliance.

“The indictment detailed how between February 2016 and April 2017, fake e-mail was made by a conspirator to appear as if they came from the company’s executive asking for W-2 data from the HR Department,” said IRS.

“This e -mail is manipulated so that the response will be directed to the address controlled by fraudsters. Using this data, more than 300 cheating tax returns are submitted claiming more than $ 1 million in refund.”

The prosecutor said Uduebor recognized the responsibility to submit 150 fake returns and manage the refund through a bank account formed by the names of the victims.

“While around $ 140,000 was paid by IRS because of this scheme, Uduebor claimed he personally only received $ 10,000,” said the US Department of Justice (DOJ), added that the $ 122,720 restitution was owed to the US Ministry of Finance after several funds recovered.

DOJ officials said that between February 2016 and April 2017, Uduebor and his co-conspirators made fake emails that seemed to originate from the company’s executive, requesting W-2 data from the Human Resources Department.

The conspirators then used this information to submit more than 300 fake tax returns, claiming more than $ 1 million refund, DOJ said.

But Uduebor, stated that his regret in court, acknowledged his impact on the victims and connecting his actions with despair related to his music career.

Uduebor was extracted from the British to the US to face the indictment and after serving a prison sentence, it was expected to be deported to Nigeria.