Jury convicts Festus Anyiam of money laundering, identity theft; faces decades in U.S. prison
A federal jury has convicted Festus Anyiam, a Nigerian residing in Norcross, Georgia, of stealing United States government funds and laundering money obtained through a fraudulent tax refund scheme that used stolen identities.
A statement on Monday by the Department of Justice said Mr Anyiam, 41, was convicted on June 5, following a one-week trial during which he was found guilty of four counts of theft of government funds and one count of money laundering.
According to U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg, in 2015, the personally identifiable information (PII) of taxpayers in Illinois and Missouri were used to request tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after filing tax returns deemed fraudulent.
Following the request, the IRS sent the refunds to a third-party tax software company, which then transferred the funds to prepaid debit cards activated using taxpayers’ stolen identities.
The debit cards were used to place orders with retail stores across Atlanta. He said that between June and July 2015, Mr Anyiam deposited hundreds of the stolen funds into his personal account, using ATMs.
Mr Hertzberg said the Nigerian tried to conceal the source of the funds by purchasing a $406,000 cashier’s cheque and transferring it to another bank account.
“This defendant attempted to conceal his brazen theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent tax refund payments by converting the stolen refunds into money orders and then transferring the cashed money orders into accounts he controlled,” said Mr Hertzberg.
He vowed that his office will “pursue” those who steal from the tax system.
“This verdict is a victory for the U.S. tax system,” said William Steenson, special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation, St. Louis Field Office.
Mr Steenson said the verdict should “send a message to would-be thieves” that the IRS and its law enforcement partners will “aggressively” pursue individuals who steal taxpayers’ money.
He added, “No matter how many steps a thief takes to hide their ill-got gains, our special agents will track them down and bring them to justice.”
Mr Anyiam is scheduled to be sentenced on September 10, 2026, before Judge Mark H. Cohen of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
He faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment on each count of theft and up to 20 years on the money laundering count. The judge may consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide advisory sentencing ranges.
The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sekret T. Sneed and Daniel Grill.
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