The United States Department of Justice has filed a civil lawsuit seeking to strip a Nigerian-born man, Emmanuel Oluwatosin Kazeem, of his American citizenship over his involvement in a massive identity theft and tax fraud operation that allegedly targeted thousands of victims and cost U.S. authorities millions of dollars.
In a statement released on Monday, the Justice Department said the case was filed at the U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Maryland. Prosecutors accused Kazeem of obtaining U.S. citizenship illegally by concealing criminal activities and providing false information during his naturalisation process.
Kazeem was previously convicted in 2017 on multiple fraud-related charges, including mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison after investigators linked him to a sophisticated tax refund fraud network.
Although his prison sentence was commuted in 2024 by former U.S. President Joe Biden after serving roughly six years, U.S. authorities are now pushing to cancel his citizenship status entirely.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said the administration remained committed to pursuing individuals who secured citizenship through fraudulent means.
According to him, the government would not allow people who were never legally qualified for American citizenship to continue enjoying its privileges.
Court filings alleged that Kazeem’s criminal activities started before he became a naturalised citizen and continued afterward, which prosecutors argued automatically made him ineligible for citizenship under U.S. law.
Authorities also claimed he entered into a fraudulent marriage arrangement to obtain permanent residency before later marrying another woman, actions investigators said further violated immigration rules.
The investigation reportedly began in 2013 after a resident of Medford, Oregon, informed the Internal Revenue Service that fake tax returns had been submitted using her family’s personal information.
Search operations carried out in Illinois, Maryland and Georgia later uncovered large amounts of evidence, including prepaid debit cards, money orders, cash and electronic devices allegedly connected to the fraud operation.
Investigators said the evidence identified Kazeem as the alleged mastermind behind the scheme.
According to the Justice Department, the fraud syndicate possessed stolen personal records belonging to more than 259,000 individuals. Authorities alleged that Kazeem purchased over 91,000 identities from a Vietnamese hacker who had infiltrated a private company database in Oregon.
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Between 2012 and 2015, prosecutors said the group used the stolen identities to submit fraudulent tax returns while obtaining electronic filing PINs to bypass IRS verification systems.
Officials claimed Kazeem was directly connected to more than 10,000 fake federal tax returns that attempted to secure over $91 million in refunds, with approximately $11.6 million successfully paid out.
Investigators further alleged that over 2,000 wire transfers worth more than $2.1 million were sent to Nigeria during the operation, with more than 700 transactions reportedly tied directly to Kazeem.
The Justice Department also accused him of using proceeds from the scheme to make a down payment of nearly $200,000 on a newly built house in the United States and attempting to finance a proposed four-star hotel project valued at $6 million in Lagos.
Authorities added that shortly before his arrest in 2015, Kazeem allegedly transferred ownership stakes in some U.S. properties to his sister in Nigeria for just $10.
The case was jointly investigated by agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the IRS Criminal Investigation unit and the Department of Homeland Security. The denaturalisation proceedings are expected to be handled by the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation.