Nigerian pleads guilty to $12m fraud in US, faces 20 years in jail

Kunle Sodipo Williams, a Nigerian based in the US, has pleaded guilty to a $12 million fraud.

Williams who is a resident of St. Louis, Missouri, is guilty of mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, voter fraud and illegally re-entering the US after being removed.

NAN reports that Stuart Goldberg, acting deputy assistant attorney-general of the justice department’s tax division, and Carrie Costantin, acting attorney eastern district of Missouri, said Williams pleaded guilty in a federal court in Alabama.

According to documents filed at the court, the accused stole public school employees’ IDs from a payroll company and used them to electronically file more than 2,000 fraudulent federal income tax returns seeking more than $12 million in refunds.

The attorneys said he also stole several electronic filing identification numbers (EFINs) and used them to secure tax-related bank products and services that facilitated the issuance of tax refunds, blank check stock and debit cards.

They said Williams used the blank stock to print checks funded by the fraudulent refunds and directed some of the refunds onto debit cards.

It was gathered that Williams entered the US from Nigeria under the name Kunlay Sodipo, but was deported in 1995. In 1999, he illegally returned to the country using the last name Williams.

Williams faces a maximum 20-year jail term for the offences and deportation. He will be sentenced in October.

Costantin commended special agents of IRS criminal investigation, FBI, US postal inspection service and all the agencies that investigated the case.