Nigerian national sentenced to 8 years for tax-business hacks
Original title: Nigerian national given 8-year sentence for tax business hacks
Chukwuemeka Amachukwu must also pay more than $3.6 million after spearphishing U.S. tax preparers and filing fraudulent returns.
U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe sentenced Nigerian national Chukwuemeka Amachukwu to eight years, one year of supervised release, and more than $3.6 million in restitution. Prosecutors said he led spearphishing of U.S. tax-preparation businesses from 2019 and stole data on about 800 customers. The group obtained $2.5 million of about $8.4 million sought in fraudulent refunds, plus about $819,000 from SBA disaster loans. Co-conspirator Kingsley Uchelue Utulu received five years in June.
- Amachukwu was extradited from France last year on fraud, hacking and identity-theft charges.
- A May 2021 phishing email infected a Manhattan tax firm with malware.
- He earned more than $7 million by selling fake standby letters of credit.
- Utulu was arrested in the U.K. before his June sentence.
Impact: Tax data on about 800 customers stolen for refund fraud
- ATT&CK
- T1566 Phishing
- Organizations
- Small Business Administration
From the original article
2 min read at therecord.mediaA Nigerian national who worked with a group to hack tax prep businesses and conduct millions of dollars in fraud using customer data was sentenced this week.
therecord.media
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