A United States District Court in Boston has sentenced a 37-year-old Nigerian, Matthew Akande, to eight years’ imprisonment for orchestrating a $1.3 million tax fraud scheme, while American authorities have also extradited another Nigerian, Afeez Olatunji Adewale, to face charges over a sexual extortion case linked to the suicide of a teenage boy.
In the first case, Justice Indira Talwani of the US District Court, Boston, handed Akande an eight-year jail term, to be followed by three years of supervised release. The court also ordered him to pay $1,393,230 in restitution to the US government.
According to a statement by the US Department of Justice, Akande, who was based in Mexico, was arrested at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom in October 2024 at the request of American authorities. He was subsequently extradited to the US on March 5, 2025.
Prosecutors said Akande conspired with others between June 2016 and June 2021 to steal personally identifiable information belonging to US taxpayers and used the data to file fraudulent tax returns.
Investigations revealed that the syndicate targeted tax preparation firms in Massachusetts through phishing emails disguised as enquiries from prospective clients.
The emails reportedly tricked the firms into downloading remote access trojan malware, including Warzone RAT, which enabled unauthorised access to confidential client data.
Authorities said the stolen information was used to file over 1,000 fraudulent tax returns seeking more than $8.1 million in refunds. Of that amount, over $1.3 million was successfully obtained.
The fraudulent refunds were paid into bank accounts opened by co-conspirators in the United States, who withdrew the funds in cash and transferred portions to third parties in Mexico at Akande’s direction.
He was convicted on charges bordering on conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and fraud, wire fraud, theft of government money, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the US government confirmed the extradition of 26-year-old Afeez Olatunji Adewale to face prosecution in connection with a sexual extortion scheme that led to the death of a teenager, Jack Sullivan, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
A statement by the US authorities disclosed that Adewale was arrested in Nigeria on August 17, 2023, during a joint operation involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Nigerian law enforcement agencies targeting online sexual extortionists.
He was extradited to the US on February 13, 2026, with the support of Nigeria’s Attorney-General of the Federation, the Federal Ministry of Justice’s International Criminal Justice Cooperation Department, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The case stems from an online sextortion plot in which the teenage victim was allegedly coerced and threatened, leading to his suicide.
Adewale is the third Nigerian extradited in connection with the matter.
Two other suspects — Samuel Aina and Samuel Olasunkanmi Abiodun — were previously extradited to the US in July 2024 after a Nigerian court approved their transfer.
In December 2024, Abiodun pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Aina also pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including cyberstalking and interstate threats, and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.
US authorities said Adewale has appeared before a federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and is facing charges relating to sexual extortion and the death of the victim.
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