Nigerian Citizen Pleads Guilty to Theft of Government Funds

St. Louis, MO – Olusola Luke, 38, a citizen of Nigeria and resident of Guatemala pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal government funds and to commit identity theft today.  Luke appeared before U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey who accepted his plea and deferred sentencing until January 17, 2018.

“Investigating refund fraud and identity theft is a priority for IRS Criminal Investigation,” said Karl Stiften, Special Agent in Charge.  “Stealing identities and filing false tax returns is a serious crime that hurts innocent taxpayers.  The conviction of Mr. Luke should serve as a strong warning to those who are considering similar conduct.”

In his plea agreement, Luke admitted that he and others misused the identifiers of dozens of individuals to seek and obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in government funds by filing false tax returns in the names of the identity theft victims.  In all, the conspiracy obtained more than $734,000 in government funds.  Luke also acknowledged his conviction may subject him to removal from the United States. 

Luke was arrested as he entered the United States at Dulles International Airport late on the evening of April 6, 2017 and was taken into custody by the United States Marshals Service at that time and will remain in custody until sentencing.

The case was investigated by Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation as part of its Stolen Identity Refund Fraud (SIRF) Initiative which seeks to disrupt the multi-billion-dollar enterprise whereby Americans’ identities are compromised and used to defraud the government through the income tax system.  The U.S. Marshals Service assisted with the apprehension of the Defendant.