By A Nigerian citizen, Akinade Adedeji Raheem, has been extradited from Benin to the United States and arraigned on federal charges linked to an alleged scheme to claim more than $100 million in fraudulent tax refunds using stolen identities, American prosecutors have announced.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said Raheem, 43, appeared in court on Monday, October 26, 2026, and was ordered held in the custody of the US Marshals Service while the case continues. The office issued its announcement on Tuesday.
The allegations
Prosecutors say that between 2018 and 2023, Raheem, who lived in Atlanta, worked with Abayomi Quadri Eletu, a resident of both the United Kingdom and Nigeria, and others to claim false tax refunds. They allege the group filed more than 300 fraudulent returns seeking over $100 million from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
According to the US Attorney’s Office, the suspects collected sensitive details of tax professionals and ordinary taxpayers, including names, addresses and Social Security numbers. They allegedly did this by opening online accounts with the IRS and requesting private taxpayer data. The refunds were then split across prepaid debit cards sent to addresses controlled by members of the group.
The prosecutors also allege that part of the money was laundered through money orders bought in amounts small enough to stay below reporting thresholds. These were used to buy used cars from auction sites, some of which were shipped to Nigeria, along with designer clothing and other items.
Arrest and extradition
The office said federal agents tried to arrest Raheem at his home in April 2026. A man who identified himself as Raheem spoke to them through a video doorbell and said he was not at home. Less than a week later, agents learned he had booked a flight from Mexico City to Benin.
He landed in Benin on April 15, 2026, and was arrested by local authorities on an INTERPOL Red Notice. Benin extradited him to the United States last week. The prosecutors described this as only the second extradition from Benin to the US in history.
Charges
A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Georgia indicted Raheem on February 24, 2026. He faces one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, 14 counts of access device fraud and 14 counts of aggravated identity theft.
The maximum penalties are 20 years in prison for the fraud conspiracy, 20 years for money laundering and 10 years for access device fraud. Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year sentence.
Eletu was separately indicted on February 17, 2026, in the Western District of Texas. He was later arrested in the United Kingdom, where extradition proceedings are pending.
Officials react
US Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said the scope of the alleged fraud was “staggering” and that the extradition showed no alleged criminal could escape American justice.
Special Agent in Charge Christopher J. Altemus Jr. of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Texas Field Office said the scheme victimised hundreds of taxpayers and also took money from the US Treasury. He advised taxpayers to protect their returns with an identity protection PIN from the IRS website.
Anthony Colello, the Special Agent in Charge of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), said the case reflected a commitment to pursue and prosecute people who defraud the American public.
Who worked on the case
IRS Criminal Investigation and TIGTA investigated the case, with help from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. The US thanked the UK, INTERPOL’s National Central Bureau in Benin, and several Beninese agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior.
Assistant US Attorney Brian Pearce is prosecuting with Senior Litigation Counsel Michael C. Boteler and Trial Attorney Michael Jones of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. The Department announced the creation of that division on April 7, 2026.
The prosecutors stressed that an indictment contains only charges. Raheem and Eletu are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
