Matthew Akande extradited from UK after orchestrating five-year scheme that filed over 1,000 fraudulent returns using malware and stolen identities
A Nigerian national who orchestrated a sophisticated five-year cyber scheme targeting Massachusetts tax preparation firms has been sentenced to eight years in a U.S. federal prison, authorities announced Wednesday.
Matthew A. Akande, 37, who was living in Mexico while directing the operation, received the sentence Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston. He was also ordered to pay $1,393,230 in restitution and will serve three years of supervised release following his prison term .
How the Scheme Worked
Between June 2016 and June 2021, Akande and his co-conspirators used phishing emails and malicious software to infiltrate computer systems belonging to at least five tax preparation firms in Massachusetts . The emails were disguised as messages from prospective clients but were designed to trick recipients into installing remote-access trojan malware, including a notorious program known as Warzone RAT .
Once inside the firms' networks, Akande harvested clients' personally identifiable information and prior-year tax records. Using this stolen data, the group filed more than 1,000 fraudulent tax returns seeking over $8.1 million in refunds from the U.S. government .
The Money Trail
The fraudulent refunds were directed to bank accounts opened by co-conspirators in the United States. After the funds were deposited, these individuals withdrew the money in cash and transferred portions to contacts in Mexico at Akande's direction, while keeping a percentage for themselves.
Prosecutors confirmed that the group successfully obtained more than $1.3 million through the scheme .
Arrest and Extradition
Akande was indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2022 on multiple charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, unauthorized computer access, theft of government funds, and 14 counts of aggravated identity theft . He remained at large until October 2024, when he was arrested at Heathrow Airport in London at the request of U.S. authorities . He was extradited to the United States on March 5, 2025 .
The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs coordinated with authorities in the United Kingdom to secure the extradition .
Sophisticated Techniques
Court documents reveal the sophistication of Akande's methods. To make his phishing emails more convincing, he attached legitimate tax documents—including W-2 and 1099 forms—belonging to an executive whose identity he was impersonating. He directed recipients to a Dropbox link containing what appeared to be prior-year tax information but actually housed malware designed to compromise their systems .
Akande also purchased licenses for encryption software known as a "crypter" to make the Warzone RAT malware undetectable by antivirus solutions installed on victims' devices . The FBI had previously seized Warzone RAT's infrastructure in February 2024 .
Warning to Businesses
Federal authorities encouraged all businesses that suspect they have been targeted by cyberattacks to file complaints with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov. Taxpayers and tax preparation firms that suspect phishing attacks can forward suspicious emails to phishing@irs.gov .
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Holcomb of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit and investigated by the FBI's Boston Division and the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigations unit .
For Akande, the eight-year sentence brings an end to a five-year crime spree that stretched across three countries—but for the taxpayers whose identities were stolen, the consequences may last much longer.
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