A multi-year stolen-identity refund conspiracy out of East Texas
Imafedia Adevokhai, Michael Martin and Osazuwa Peter Okunoghae were sentenced at different times between January 2022 and April 2025 for their roles in a multi-year stolen identity refund fraud conspiracy centred in the Eastern District of Texas. The group used dozens of victims' stolen personal information to file returns claiming $4,945,886 in refunds, causing a confirmed IRS loss of at least $390,220.40.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $390,220
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Stolen identity refund fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-18
The facts, as recorded
- Imafedia Adevokhai, of Alpharetta, Georgia, pleaded guilty to money laundering on February 15, 2023, and was sentenced on April 2, 2025, to 46 months in federal prison, $90,380.60 in restitution and $3,500 in forfeiture.
- Michael Martin, of Texarkana, Texas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy on February 14, 2023, and was sentenced on November 21, 2023, to 18 months in federal prison, $90,380.60 in restitution and $121,623.41 in forfeiture.
- Osazuwa Peter Okunoghae, of Houston, pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy on November 12, 2019, and was sentenced on January 13, 2022, to 78 months in federal prison, $451,117.63 in restitution and $451,117.63 in forfeiture.
- All three sentences were imposed by US District Judge Robert W. Schroeder III in the Eastern District of Texas.
- Prosecutors said the conspirators stole personal identifying information from dozens of victims over multiple years and used it to file fraudulent tax returns; Adevokhai prepared and filed many of the fraudulent returns, while Okunoghae and Martin laundered the stolen funds through US bank accounts and then to foreign accounts.
- The returns filed claimed a total of $4,945,886 in refunds; the confirmed loss to the US Treasury and IRS was at least $390,220.40.
- The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant US Attorneys Nathaniel C. Kummerfeld and Sean Taylor.
- IRS-CI Dallas Field Office Special Agent in Charge Christopher J. Altemus Jr. said the sentences "should be a warning to anyone who would try to defraud the U.S. Government."
Why this case matters
The nearly three-year gap between the first sentencing in this case, Okunoghae’s in January 2022, and the last, Adevokhai’s in April 2025, shows how long a stolen identity refund conspiracy can take to fully resolve once prosecutors move past the person who filed the returns to the people who moved the money afterward.
A division of labour
Unlike a single filer working alone, this case split the scheme into two functions. Adevokhai was described as the one who actually prepared and filed the fraudulent returns using victims’ stolen information. Okunoghae and Martin were not filers; prosecutors said they laundered the stolen proceeds, moving them first through US accounts and then on to accounts abroad, a separation of roles that let the conspiracy continue even after any one participant was identified.
What was claimed versus what was actually lost
The $4,945,886 the group’s fraudulent returns sought is more than twelve times the $390,220.40 the Treasury and IRS confirmed as an actual loss. That gap reflects the gap between a scheme’s ambition and the fraction of it that clears every IRS check and actually reaches a fraudster’s account, the same gap documented in other cases on this page.
The caveat
All three defendants have been sentenced following guilty pleas; this is a concluded matter. The article reporting Martin’s sentencing date carries an apparent typographical error in the official IRS release (“Nov. r 21, 2023”); November 21, 2023 is used here as the clearly intended date. The investigation also linked the scheme to separate, unnamed individuals charged in January 2019 in three other states and in Nigeria; this case file covers only the three defendants named and sentenced in the source cited.
Sources
- Three sentenced to federal prison for roles in tax refund fraud scheme. US Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Accessed 2026-10-18. Supports: All facts above: the three defendants' plea and sentencing dates, prison terms, restitution and forfeiture figures, their respective roles, the $4,945,886 claimed and $390,220.40 confirmed loss, and the Altemus quote.