March 31, 2017

A Republic of Benin man unlawfully residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was convicted in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania of conspiring to commit access device fraud. According to the indictment and evidence at trial, from February through June 2014, Abdou Koudos Adissa was engaged in a conspiracy in which stolen identities were used to file tax returns claiming refunds with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Co-conspirators filed tax returns fraudulently seeking more than $800,000 in refunds, which were loaded onto Green Dot prepaid debit cards and sent via Western Union to Nigeria. In order for the prepaid debit cards to accept direct deposits, they had to be registered using personal identifying information including names, social security numbers and addresses. During a search of the apartment Adissa shared with a co-conspirator, special agents found 106 Green Dot cards in Adissa’s room. Adissa registered the Green Dot cards using stolen IDs and provided his co-conspirators with the direct deposit information related to the cards so that fraudulently obtained refunds could be directed to them. to the evidence produced at trial, he called Western Union 63 times in three months to facilitate transferring these fraudulent refunds to Nigeria. DOJ

Tagged in: Tax Fraud,