A United States federal court has sentenced Nigerian national Matthew Akande to eight years in prison for orchestrating a cyber fraud scheme that defrauded the U.S. government of more than $1.3 million through fraudulent tax filings.
Akande, 37, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston. In addition to the prison term, he was ordered to pay $1,393,230 in restitution and will serve three years of supervised release after completing his sentence.
Authorities said Akande was arrested in October 2024 at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom and extradited to the United States in March 2025.
Prosecutors revealed that between 2016 and 2021, Akande and his accomplices carried out phishing attacks targeting tax preparation firms in Massachusetts. The group sent fraudulent emails designed to trick firms into installing remote-access malware known as Warzone RAT.
The malware allowed the hackers to access clients’ personal information and previous tax records. Using the stolen data, the group filed more than 1,000 fraudulent tax returns requesting over $8.1 million in refunds.
Investigators said the conspirators successfully obtained more than $1.3 million, which was transferred to bank accounts opened by accomplices in the United States before being withdrawn and moved through third parties in Mexico at Akande’s direction.
