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Chukwuemeka Victor Amachukwu, a 40-year-old Nigerian-born man, has been sentenced to eight years in prison in the United States for his role in multiple fraud, hacking, and identity theft offences targeting American businesses and individuals.
Jamie McDonald, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement on Monday that Amachukwu, also known as Chukwuemeka Victor Eletuo and So Kwan Leung, was sentenced by Paul G. Gardephe, a US district judge.
Amachukwu previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
“Chukwuemeka Amachukwu believed he was operating safely offshore when he targeted his victims, but he has now been held to account and now faces a serious sentence for his crimes,” McDonald said.
“Amachukwu took part in sophisticated schemes to hack into U.S. businesses, steal and use stolen identity information of victims, and commit fraud.
“These crimes imposed significant harm on the victims and the public, and so it is only appropriate that the crimes also come with a significant sentence for the defendant.”
According to the statement, Amachukwu, his co-conspirator Kingsley Uchelue Utulu and other Nigeria-based accomplices began hacking US tax preparation businesses in or around 2019.
They used spear-phishing emails to gain access to the businesses’ electronic systems and stole tax and other personal information belonging to approximately 800 customers.
The group targeted several tax preparation businesses in New York, Texas and other US states.
The stolen information was then used to file fraudulent tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service and state tax authorities. The conspirators sought refunds totalling approximately $8.4 million and successfully obtained at least $2.5 million.
They also used the stolen identities to submit fraudulent applications to the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan programme, obtaining an additional $819,000 in illicit payments.
Amachukwu was also involved in an investment fraud scheme targeting US victims, according to the statement.
“In addition, AMACHUKWU took part in a fraud scheme in which he offered U.S. victims investments in purportedly valuable standby letters of credit,” the statement added.
“In the course of this scheme, AMACHUKWU impersonated a wealthy overseas financier in order to fool his victims.
“In reality, these investments did not exist, and AMACHUKWU and his co-conspirators were able to pocket more than $7 million in fraudulent proceeds.”
In addition to the eight-year prison sentence, Amachukwu was sentenced to one year of supervised release.
He was also ordered to pay $3,647,629.39 in restitution and forfeit $10,846,634.39.
