Three men, two of whom are Nigerians, Imafedia Adevokhai and Osazuwa Peter Okunoghae, have been sentenced to USA federal prison for their roles in a tax refund fraud scheme. Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, Abe McGlothin, Jr. made this public in a statement received on Sunday, April 6.
Imafedia Adevokhai, 47, of Alpharetta, Georgia, pleaded guilty to money laundering on February 15, 2023, and was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Robert W. Schroeder, III on April 2, 2025. Adevokhai was also ordered to pay $90,380.60 restitution and $3500 forfeiture.
Michael Martin, 52 years of age from Texarkana, Texas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy on February 14, 2023, and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison by Judge Schroeder on November 21, 2023. Martin was to pay restitution of $90,380.60 and forfeiture of $121,623.41. Osazuwa Peter Okunoghae, 46 years old and from Houston, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on November 12, 2019, and was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison by Judge Schroeder on January 13, 2022. Okunoghae was ordered to pay $451,117.63 in restitution and $451,117.63 in forfeiture.
“Adevokhai, Martin, and Okunoghae, and others, orchestrated an elaborate plan to steal the tax refunds of legitimate U.S. taxpayers through identity theft refund fraud,” said Christopher J. Altemus Jr., special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Dallas Field Office. The female and male employees of IRS-CI did a superb job of revealing this scam and bringing the perpetrators to justice. Their sentences must be an example to anyone who would seek to defraud the U.S. Government or exploit honest taxpaying citizens.
According to facts presented in court, Adevokhai, Martin, Okunoghae, and others participated in a multi-year stolen identity refund fraud (SIRF) conspiracy to steal the personal identifying information of the victims and utilize the pirated information to prepare false tax returns. The total tax refunds claimed by the fictitious returns was $4,945,886, and the U.S. Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, was at least a $390,220.40 loss.
Adevokhai was involved in the preparation and filing of a number of the phony tax returns. Okunoghae and Martin were involved in the laundering of the stolen funds. To that end, they worked with and aided others who would transmit fraud proceeds from United States financial accounts and then to foreign financial accounts. Adevokhai, Martin, and Okunoghae were associated in the investigation with dozens of victims whose taxpayer identification was stolen.
In January 2019, three states citizens and other Nigerian citizens were charged with their part in the conspiracy
One of the Department of Justice Tax Division’s top priorities is bringing to justice those individuals who use stolen identities to fraudulently steal from the United States Treasury by filing false tax returns. SIRF schemes threaten the integrity of orderly administration of the income tax law by honest taxpayers and have cost the United States Treasury billions.
The matter was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and prosecuted on behalf of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathaniel C. Kummerfeld and Sean Taylor.
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