Abraham Yusuff's $110 million stolen-identity refund ring
Abraham Yusuff of Round Rock, Texas led a scheme that ran from 2018 to 2021, using stolen taxpayer identities and stolen tax-preparer credentials to file more than 370 fraudulent returns seeking $110 million in refunds, of which the IRS actually paid out about $30 million. He was sentenced in September 2024 to more than 14 years in federal prison; six co-defendants received sentences ranging from 12 months to just over three years.
- Year
- 2024
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $30.4 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Stolen identity refund fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-18
The facts, as recorded
- Abraham Yusuff, of Round Rock, Texas, was sentenced on September 6, 2024, in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, by Judge Robert Pittman, to more than 14 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and $30,370,365 in restitution and forfeiture.
- The scheme ran from 2018 to 2021 and sought $110 million in fraudulent refunds, of which the IRS paid out approximately $30 million.
- Yusuff and his co-conspirators stole taxpayer identities and stolen Centralized Authorization File (CAF) numbers to pose as the taxpayers' own authorized representatives, then changed victims' addresses and emails on file with the IRS so transcripts, wage records and IRS correspondence went to addresses the defendants controlled.
- Yusuff recruited others to receive the redirected mail, and communicated over Telegram instructing co-defendants to photograph incoming IRS mail and then destroy it.
- The group filed more than 370 fraudulent returns, split refunds across prepaid debit cards registered in victims' names, and in some cases impersonated the taxpayers to pass IRS identity-verification checks.
- Proceeds were converted into money orders in amounts designed to avoid identification or reporting requirements, and spent on designer clothing, home renovation materials and used cars.
- Six co-defendants were sentenced alongside or before Yusuff: Meghan Inyang of San Antonio (over three years, $762,512 restitution), Christopher Eduardo of Round Rock (over two years, $2,823,377 restitution), Dillon Anozie of San Antonio (30 months), Aydin Mammadov of Houston (18 months), Babajide Ogunbanjo of Austin (16 months), and Christian Mathurin of Nashville (12 months).
- The case was prosecuted by the Justice Department's Tax Division (Assistant Chief Michael Boteler and Trial Attorneys Mary Frances Richardson and Curtis Weidler) and investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, with assistance from the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas.
- IRS-CI Houston Special Agent in Charge Lucy Tan said Yusuff and his co-defendants "didn't just steal money, they stole the lives of hundreds of victims."
Why this case matters
This is the largest and most methodically documented stolen-identity refund case on this site. It shows the scheme at industrial scale: seven people sentenced, more than 370 fraudulent returns, and a method that went well beyond simply filing a stolen Social Security number once. Yusuff’s use of stolen CAF numbers let him and his co-defendants legally look like each victim’s own chosen tax representative, which is why they could redirect IRS mail without the real taxpayer ever noticing something was wrong until much later.
Hijacking the IRS’s own correspondence
The detail that separates this case from a simpler identity-theft filing is the address and email changes. By updating what the IRS had on file for each victim, the defendants ensured that the agency’s own fraud-detection tool, the identity-verification letter meant to catch exactly this kind of filing, was delivered to people committing the fraud instead of to the person it was meant to protect.
Laundering in small, deliberate pieces
Rather than moving the stolen refunds in large, flaggable transactions, the group converted proceeds into money orders in amounts chosen specifically to stay under the dollar thresholds that trigger identification or currency-reporting requirements, a form of structuring, then spent the proceeds on ordinary goods: clothing, home renovations and used cars.
The caveat
All seven defendants named in this case, including Yusuff, have been sentenced following guilty pleas or convictions; this is a concluded matter, not an ongoing prosecution. The $110 million figure is the total the scheme sought across every fraudulent return filed, not the amount actually paid out; the IRS says it paid approximately $30 million, the figure reflected in the restitution and forfeiture order against Yusuff.
People named in the public record
- Abraham Yusuff · convicted
Sources
- Leader of sophisticated stolen identity tax refund scheme sentenced. US Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (reproducing the Justice Department Tax Division release). Accessed 2026-10-18. Supports: All facts above: the sentence, restitution, scheme period, dollar figures, CAF-number and mail-redirection method, Telegram instructions, structured money orders, co-defendant sentences, prosecuting and investigating agencies, and the Lucy Tan quote.