A 37-year-old Nigerian national, Matthew A. Akande, has been sentenced to eight years in prison in the United States for masterminding a sophisticated cyber scheme that defrauded the US government of more than $1.3 million.
Akande, who had been living in Mexico, was handed the sentence on Tuesday by Indira Talwani at a federal court in Boston. In addition to his prison term, he was ordered to pay $1,393,230 in restitution and will serve three years of supervised release after completing his sentence.
According to US authorities, Akande was arrested in October 2024 at Heathrow Airport at the request of American officials. He was later extradited to the United States on 5 March 2025 to face prosecution.
He had been indicted in July 2022 by a federal grand jury on multiple counts, including conspiracy, wire fraud, unauthorised access to protected computers, theft of government funds and aggravated identity theft.
Five-Year Cyber Intrusion Plot
Investigators revealed that between June 2016 and
The group allegedly sent phishing emails disguised as enquiries from prospective clients. However, the emails were designed to trick firms into installing remote access trojan malware, including a programme known as Warzone RAT.
Once installed, the malware enabled Akande to harvest sensitive personal identifiable information (PII) and prior-year tax records belonging to clients of the affected firms.
Using the stolen data, the conspirators filed more than 1,000 fraudulent tax returns, seeking over $8.1 million in refunds.
Authorities said the group successfully obtained more than $1.3 million, which was deposited into bank accounts opened by co-conspirators in the United States.
The funds were withdrawn in cash and partially transferred to contacts in Mexico at Akande’s direction, while accomplices retained a share.
Prosecutors described the operation as a sustained, cross-border cybercrime network that exploited unsuspecting taxpayers and breached trusted financial institutions over a five-year period.
The sentencing marks the conclusion of an international investigation involving arrests, extradition proceedings and complex digital forensic analysis.
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