By Obinna Uballa
The United States government has launched legal action to strip a Nigerian national, Emmanuel Oluwatosin Kazeem, of his citizenship over his role in a sprawling identity theft and tax fraud operation targeting hundreds of thousands of victims.
In a civil complaint filed in a federal court in Baltimore, Maryland, the United States Department of Justice accused Kazeem of fraudulently obtaining American citizenship while concealing his involvement in a criminal scheme that attempted to defraud the Internal Revenue Service of more than $91 million.
According to the DOJ, Kazeem orchestrated a sophisticated operation that exploited stolen personal data from over 259,000 individuals, using the information to file fraudulent tax returns and claim millions in refunds.
Kazeem was convicted in 2017 on 19 counts, including mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, he served six years before his sentence was commuted in December 2024 by then-President Joe Biden, as part of a broader clemency for inmates released during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Justice Department now argues that Kazeem’s criminal activities – both before and after his naturalisation – make him ineligible to retain US citizenship. Officials also allege he secured permanent residency through a sham marriage, further disqualifying him from naturalisation.
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said the government would pursue the revocation vigorously.
“U.S. citizenship is a privilege, and we will continue to seek to revoke it where it has been obtained through fraud and deceit,” he said.
Investigations into the scheme began in 2013 after a victim reported fraudulent tax filings using stolen identities. Subsequent probes led to coordinated raids across multiple states, including Illinois, Maryland, and Georgia, where authorities uncovered large quantities of prepaid debit cards, cash, and electronic devices linked to the fraud.
Prosecutors said Kazeem acquired more than 91,000 stolen identities from a foreign hacker and distributed them among co-conspirators, including his brother, to file thousands of fraudulent returns. The syndicate successfully obtained over $11.6 million in refunds, with at least $2.1 million traced to wire transfers sent to Nigeria.
Authorities further revealed that the proceeds funded luxury purchases, including real estate acquisitions in Maryland, and were partly channelled into an attempted $6 million hotel project in Lagos.
On the eve of his arrest in 2015, Kazeem allegedly moved assets into relatives’ names in what investigators believe was an attempt to shield his wealth.
He was formally sentenced in June 2018 and ordered to pay more than $12 million in restitution following a joint investigation involving the IRS Criminal Investigation unit, the FBI, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
