Leah B. Foley United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | Department of Justice
A Nigerian national, Matthew A. Akande, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his involvement in a scheme targeting Massachusetts tax preparation firms through computer intrusions and fraudulent tax filings. The sentencing took place in federal court in Boston.
Akande, 37, was also ordered to pay $1,393,230 in restitution and will serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. He was arrested at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom in October 2024 after a request from U.S. authorities and extradited to the United States on March 5, 2025. Akande had been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges including conspiracy to obtain unauthorized access to protected computers for fraud and theft of government money, wire fraud, unauthorized access to protected computers, theft of government money, and aggravated identity theft.
According to court documents, between June 2016 and June 2021 Akande collaborated with others to steal money from the U.S. government by using stolen personally identifiable information (PII) from taxpayers to file fraudulent tax returns under their names. The group targeted Massachusetts tax preparation firms through phishing attacks that deployed remote access trojan malware such as Warzone RAT. This allowed them to access client PII and prior year tax data.
The fraudulent activity involved sending emails posing as potential clients seeking services from five different Massachusetts tax preparation firms. These emails contained malware designed to give Akande and his associates remote access to sensitive information stored by the firms. Using this data, they filed over 1,000 false tax returns seeking more than $8.1 million in refunds over approximately five years; they successfully obtained over $1.3 million.
The proceeds were deposited into bank accounts opened by coconspirators within the United States who then withdrew cash and transferred portions of it to third parties in Mexico at Akande’s direction while retaining some funds themselves.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley stated: "Federal authorities encourage all businesses that suspect they have been the target and/or victim of a cyberattack to file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov." She added: "Taxpayers and tax preparation firms that suspect they have been the target and/or victim of a phishing attack can also forward phishing email(s) to phishing@irs.gov."
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with UK authorities on Akande’s extradition process. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Holcomb.
