GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A Lansing man is facing up to 20 years in prison for his role in an international identity theft and tax refund fraud scheme.
On Monday, a jury convicted Oghevwakpo Igboba of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of wire fraud, eight counts of making a false claim to the United States and eight counts of aggravated identity theft.
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Igboba used the personal identifying information of individuals to access tax information, using an Internal Revenue Service website.
According to the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan, he attempted to access the tax information of more than 100 individuals through IRS systems.
Igboba then used the sensitive tax and personal information to file false federal income tax returns and directed the IRS to pay fraudulent refunds to bank accounts he controlled.
“My office will aggressively prosecute those who undermine the functioning of Internal Revenue Service systems and steal refunds owed to other hardworking Americans,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge.
Igboba managed to direct hundreds of thousands of dollars to himself through the scheme. The IRS was able to prevent many of the false tax returns from being processed.