US DoJ Moves to Strip Citizenship from Nigerian Man Convicted of Fraud

A Nigerian man convicted of a large-scale identity theft and tax fraud scheme in the United States is now facing the risk of losing his American citizenship.

The US Department of Justice filed a civil complaint against EMMANUEL OLUWATOSIN KAZEEM in the US District Court in Baltimore, Maryland, seeking to revoke his American citizenship.

In a statement, the DOJ disclosed that KAZEEM attempted to steal more than Ninety-One Million Dollars from the US Internal Revenue Service in a fraud scheme targeted at over two hundred and fifty-nine thousand victims.

The move comes nine years after KAZEEM was convicted in 2017 and sentenced to fifteen years I prison on nineteen counts of mail and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

The DOJ’s Civil Division Assistant Attorney General, BRETT SHUMATE, said the Trump administration would not allow wrongdoers to retain citizenship they were never entitled to.

“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.”