A US court has sentenced a Nigerian, Kunle
Sodipo Williams, to six and a half years in prison over
a stolen identity fraud scheme that sought more than
$12 million in tax refunds.
Williams, who lives in St. Louis, Missouri, was charged
with mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, voter fraud
and illegal re-entry to the US.
He is said to have used public school employees’
identification stolen from a payroll company to file
more than 2,000 fraudulent federal tax returns to the
tune of $12 million in refunds.
Williams also used fraudulently obtained identification
numbers to get refund checks.
Williams is also accused of stealing several return
preparer’s electronic filing identification numbers and
used them to secure tax-related bank products and
services that facilitated the issuance of tax refunds, to
include blank check stock and debit cards.
He then used the blank stock to print checks funded
by the fraudulent refunds and directed some of the
refunds onto debit cards.
In July, Williams pleaded guilty to the charge in an
Alabama court.
The court on Friday also also ordered him to pay
roughly $900,000 in restitution to the IRS.
Williams now faces a period of supervised release,
restitution, forfeiture and deportation.
TheCable
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