THE United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a civil complaint seeking to revoke the American citizenship of a Nigerian, Emmanuel Oluwatosin Kazeem, over his role in a massive $91 million identity theft and tax fraud scheme.
The complaint, filed at the US District Court in Baltimore, Maryland, alleges that Kazeem obtained his citizenship through fraud and the deliberate concealment of his criminal activities.
According to a DOJ press release, Kazeem orchestrated a sophisticated operation that targeted over 259,000 victims and attempted to steal more than $91 million from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Kazeem was originally convicted in 2017 on 19 counts of mail and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy, receiving a 15-year prison sentence. However, he served only six years before then President Joe Biden commuted his sentence in December 2024 alongside nearly 1,500 others who were on house arrest following early COVID-19 pandemic releases.
Reacting to the development, the Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Division, Brett Shumate, declared that the current Trump administration would not allow criminals to retain naturalized status.
“The Trump Administration will not permit wrongdoers to retain the U.S. citizenship that they were never entitled to in the first place. U.S. Citizenship is a privilege, and we will continue to ask courts to revoke a status that was obtained through fraud and deceit.” Shumate said
The DOJ further alleges that Kazeem entered into a sham marriage to secure his permanent resident status before marrying a second woman, a conduct that independently disqualified him from naturalization.
The criminal network unraveled in May 2013 after an Oregon victim noticed a fraudulent tax return filed using her personal details. A subsequent multi-agency raid across Illinois, Maryland, and Georgia uncovered over 50 electronic devices, thousands of dollars in cash, money orders, and pre-paid debit cards loaded with fraudulent refunds.
