Georgia Man Pleads Guilty to ID Theft, Tax Fraud Scheme

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Loganville, Ga., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to a fraud scheme in which he stole personal identity information from several victims in order to file fraudulent federal income tax returns.

Chike Uzodinma Agogbua, 44, of Loganville, a Nigerian national and a naturalized U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matt J. Whitworth to the charges contained in a Feb. 10, 2016, superseding indictment.

According to today’s plea agreement, federal investigators obtained bank records in 2013, which reflected that federal tax refunds for five different taxpayers were deposited into Agogbua’s bank accounts. Numerous federal tax refunds were deposited into two separate bank accounts from September through November 2013.

By pleading guilty today, Agogbua admitted that he stole the identity information of a victim identified as “TMP,” a resident of Guam, including her name and Social Security number. Agogbua used that information to file federal income tax returns.

Fraudulent federal income tax refunds, which were electronically sent from the IRS Financial Center in Kansas City, Mo., and direct-deposited into Agogbua’s bank accounts, totaled $59,610.

Under federal statutes, Agogbua is subject to a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison without parole on the wire fraud count. Agogbua is also subject to a two-year mandatory minimum sentence on the identity theft count, which must be served consecutively. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Lynn. It was investigated by the FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigation.