A Las Vegas resident was sentenced Wednesday to five years and five months in prison today for his role in a stolen identity tax fraud, officials announced
According to court documents and statements made in court, Josiah Ntekume engaged in a scheme to file false tax returns using stolen identities in order to obtain tax refunds. Coconspirators provided Ntekume with names, addresses, dates of birth, and social security numbers, and Ntekume used these stolen identities to establish prepaid debit card accounts.
The coconspirators then caused refunds fraudulently obtained from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to be deposited into those accounts.
When Ntekume was arrested on March 13, 2012, he had in his backpack about 250 prepaid debit cards in the names of other individuals, on which more than $200,000 in fraudulent refunds had been loaded. The backpack also contained stolen identities for nearly 200 other individuals that were used either to file false returns or to establish additional prepaid debit cards.
On Dec. 4, 2019, Ntekume pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, theft of government property, and fraud in connection with access devices, according to officials.
In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge James C. Mahan ordered Ntekume to pay about $221,599 in restitution to the United States.