The massive tax fraud case that already has seen six Nigerians sent to prison, and involved more than 30,000 Oregonians' stolen IDs isn't closed yet.
Oluwole Oluwaseun Odunowo and Adebiyi Oduneye aka Yoya, each face more than a dozen felony, according to newly unsealed documents filed in U.S. District Court in Medford, alleging they participated in a tax fraud ring using more than 40,000 IDs to file 1,500 false tax returns from 2013 through the middle of 2015.
They have been charged with multiple counts of mail fraud, mail fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. Odunowo was arrested, on Tuesday, in Houston.
Oduneye, who has fled the U.S and now lives in Lagos, Nigeria, has also been named as a suspect, according to a document filed by the U.S. Attorney's office in September, which had been sealed until Odunowo's arrest.
Actual losses tied to the two suspects add up to $4.75 million, federal prosecutors allege. Oduneye is alleged to have exchanged more than 43,000 stolen identities with Odunowo.
A Vietnamese hacker reportedly breached an employment services company based in Lincoln City company's server and sold the names to tax fraud ringleader Emmanuel Kazeem, who was sentenced last summer to 24 years in prison.
Odunowo and Oduneye allegedly participated in the fraud by filing numerous fake tax returns, routing refunds onto prepaid Green Dot Bank cards, cashing out the sham accounts and wiring the money to Nigeria. Victims lived in Beaverton, Portland, Monroe, Corvallis and Canby.
The multi-agency case has taken investigators to Maryland, Georgia and Illinois, and led to prison sentences for Kazeem, his brother Michael Oluwasegun Kazeem, Lateef Aina Animawun, Oluwatobi Reuben Dehinbo, Oluwaseunara Temitope Osanyinbi and Oluwamuyiwa Abolade Olawoye.
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