{"id":100877,"date":"2022-11-01T16:48:32","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T15:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=100877"},"modified":"2022-11-01T16:48:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T15:48:32","slug":"us-convicts-nigerian-over-60m-tax-fraud-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/other-news\/us-convicts-nigerian-over-60m-tax-fraud-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"US convicts Nigerian over $60m tax fraud scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">A United States federal court in West Virginia has convicted a Nigerian man Ayodele Arasokun for his role in an international conspiracy to defraud the US government of $60 million by filing false tax returns.<\/p>\n<p>This was made known in a press statement from the US Attorney\u2019s Office Northern District of West Virginia published on Friday.<\/p><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nAccording to the statement, Arasokun was found guilty of 21 counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft by a jury as he orchestrated a scheme to file 1,701 false returns and claim $9.1 million in refunds.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nWest Virginians were among those whose identities were stolen in the process, according to the release.<\/p>\n<p>Arasokun was in a location just outside of Paris, France at the time of the crimes, but the release did not indicate when they happened.<\/p><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nA total of $2.2 million in fraudulent refunds were actually paid by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the release said. The scheme involved compromising the Electronic Filing Pin application.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators determined Arasokun was tracking about 700 U.S.-based accounts containing more than $50 million, and during the trial, evidence revealed that he had the internal revenue service (IRS) transfer money to pre-paid debit cards or to checking accounts that he was monitoring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe jury\u2019s verdict sends a clear message to criminals everywhere: don\u2019t mess with the IRS,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Ihlenfeld. \u201cWe have the best cybercrime investigators in the world and if you tamper with our tax system, we will find you, extradite you, and incarcerate you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Arasokun is currently being held in the Eastern Regional Jail in Martinsburg, where he will remain until his sentencing, according to the release.<\/p>\n<p>The case was investigated by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) \u2013 Cybercrime Investigations Division, and the IRS-CI, Los Angeles field office.<\/p><\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A United States federal court in West Virginia has convicted a Nigerian man Ayodele Arasokun for his role in an international conspiracy to defraud the US government of $60 million&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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