Nigerian man sentenced to prison by Seattle court for W-2 tax fraud scheme
Jun 30, 2025, 6:35 PM
A photo of the U.S. Department of Justice Seal. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice)
(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice)
A Nigerian citizen, who was arrested and extradited from the United Kingdom for wire fraud and identity theft, was sentenced to 40 months in prison Monday.
Onomen Uduebor, 39, also known as Onomen Onohi, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in a scheme to steal and use income tax data for fraud.
Nigerian man sentenced to 40 months in prison for W-2 fraud
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Uduebor was arrested in the United Kingdom in September 2023, arrived in the U.S. in March 2025, and pleaded guilty in April, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in a . He will likely be deported back to Nigeria following his prison sentence.
Between February 2016 and April 2017, Uduebor participated in a scheme that created false emails, appearing to come from each company’s human resources department, and requested employees’ W-2 data.
The information received was then used to file more than 300 fake tax returns claiming more than $1 million in tax refunds. Of the many victims targeted, a Tukwila-based company was included.
Uduebor admitted to filing 150 of the false tax returns and tracking refunds and payments to bank accounts he set up under the names of the victims.
鈥淭his conduct damaged companies, employees, and the Internal Revenue Service. While the IRS caught most of the fake tax refund filings, it left the individual victims with tax headaches and a sense of fear since their identities had been stolen,” Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller said.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) paid out roughly $140,000 to the conspirators, although Uduebor claimed he received only $10,000 from the scheme. Additionally, the IRS retrieved some of the money, and the total restitution owed to the U.S. Department of the Treasury is $122,720.
The $10,000 Uduebor admitted to earning was forfeited, and he must pay the remaining $122,720.
鈥淚 have read the victim impact statements and I know an apology is not enough 鈥�. I was desperate to succeed in my music career. It is not an excuse, but it is the truth,鈥� Uduebor said in court Monday.
The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service 鈥� Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), and the U.S. DOJ Office of International Affairs assisted with the extradition process.
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