Onomen Uduebor, a 38-year-old Nigerian citizen, was arrested and extradited from the UK to the United States of America In the indictment in western Washington, the arraignment involved wire transfer fraud involving stolen tax information.
Uduebor was arraigned in the U.S. District Court in Seattle on Friday, March 7, 2025, and Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller announced in a statement.
Uduebor is charged with three charges related to plans to steal and use income tax data for fraud.
The 2019 indictment was announced Friday for Uduebor’s debut.
Uduebor entered the “innocence” request and plans to face U.S. District Court Judge James L. Robart on May 12, 2025.
The defendant allegedly participated in a conspiracy that included deceiving companies across the United States, including a company based in Tukvilla, to provide W-2 information about its employees. The conspirators then filed fake tax returns in the name of employees, demanding massive refunds and causing confusion in the number of stolen social insurance. Acting U.S. Attorney Miller said.
According to the indictment, between February 2016 and April 2017, conspirators created fake emails that appeared to be from company executives asking about W-2 data from HR.
Conspirators manipulate emails so that any reply can be transferred to an email address they control.
The conspirators then used W-2S information to submit more than 300 fake tax returns to claim a tax refund of more than $1 million. Agreed to target companies across the United States in the program.
Uduebor is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and serious identity theft.
Allegations of wire fraud can be sentenced to up to twenty years in prison. Aggravated identity theft can be sentenced to a mandatory sentence of at least two years for consecutive sentences of any conviction of wire fraud.
The allegations contained in the indictment are only charges. A person is considered innocent unless proven guilty beyond the reasonable suspicion of the court.
The case has been investigated by the IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Miriam Hinman.
Uduebor was arrested in the UK in September 2023.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs has provided valuable assistance to the extradition process.
