The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil case seeking to revoke the American citizenship of a Nigerian-born man, Emmanuel Oluwatosin Kazeem, over his role in a large-scale identity theft and tax fraud scheme.
The department announced in a statement on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, that it had filed and served a civil denaturalisation complaint in a federal court in Baltimore, Maryland, accusing Kazeem of unlawfully obtaining U.S. citizenship through fraud and the concealment of criminal activities.
According to prosecutors, Kazeem was previously convicted in 2017 on 19 counts, including mail and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison but had his sentence commuted in 2024 by former U.S. President Joe Biden after serving about six years.
The Justice Department alleges that Kazeem orchestrated a sophisticated scheme involving the theft of personal identifying information (PII) from more than 259,000 victims.
Authorities said he purchased over 91,000 stolen identities from a foreign hacker and used them to file fraudulent tax returns between 2012 and 2015.
Investigators linked him to 10,139 fake federal tax filings that attempted to claim more than $91 million in refunds, with approximately $11.6 million successfully obtained.
Court documents revealed that the fraud network relied heavily on prepaid debit cards to receive illegal refunds, while thousands of electronic filing PINs were generated to bypass the authentication systems of the Internal Revenue Service.
Law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and IRS Criminal Investigation unit, carried out coordinated raids across multiple states, seizing cash, money orders, electronic devices, and hundreds of debit cards tied to the scheme.
Authorities further allege that Kazeem used proceeds from the fraud to finance an extravagant lifestyle, including property acquisitions in Maryland and plans for a $6 million hotel project in Lagos, Nigeria.
The complaint also accuses Emmanuel Oluwatosin Kazeem of engaging in immigration fraud before his naturalisation, including entering into a sham marriage to secure permanent residency and later marrying another woman—actions that could disqualify him from holding U.S. citizenship.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate stated that the government is committed to revoking citizenship obtained through deception.
“U.S. citizenship is a privilege, and we will continue to ask courts to revoke a status that was obtained through fraud and deceit,” he said.
If the court rules in favour of the government, Kazeem could lose his citizenship and face possible deportation after the completion of legal proceedings.
The case is being handled by the Civil Division’s Office of Immigration Litigation, with investigative support from multiple federal agencies, including Homeland Security Investigations.
