United States Department of Justice (USDoJ) has filed a civil complaint seeking to revoke the citizenship of Nigerian-born Emmanuel Oluwatosin Kazeem over his involvement in a massive identity theft and tax fraud scheme.
Filed at the U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Maryland, court documents allege that Kazeem obtained his naturalisation by concealing prior criminal activities and engaging in immigration fraud.
Kazeem was previously convicted in 2017 on 19 counts, including mail and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. His sentence was commuted in 2024 by former U.S. President Joe Biden after serving about six years.
While announcing the filing on Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate said the U.S. government would not allow individuals to retain 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,” he said.
The complaint stated that Kazeem orchestrated a large-scale identity theft operation involving more than 259,000 victims. He purchased over 91,000 stolen identities from a foreign hacker and distributed them to co-conspirators, who used the data to file fraudulent tax returns between 2012 and 2015.
Authorities allege the scheme generated over $91 million in fraudulent refund claims, with at least $11.6 million successfully obtained. Part of the funds, approximately $2.1 million, was reportedly transferred to Nigeria through thousands of wire transactions.
The complaint also revealed that Kazeem funded an expensive lifestyle with the proceeds, including a $200,000 down payment on a house and the purchase of a $175,000 townhouse in Maryland. He also allegedly attempted a $6 million hotel investment in Lagos and transferred property ownership to relatives in Nigeria for nominal amounts shortly before his arrest in 2015.
The denaturalisation case is being handled by the Department of Justice’s immigration litigation unit, following multi-agency investigations involving the FBI, the IRS Criminal Investigation unit, and other U.S. authorities. If successful, Kazeem could lose his U.S. citizenship on the grounds that it was obtained through fraud and misrepresentation.