NORCROSS — A federal jury last week found a Norcross man guilty of stealing government money and laundering more than $400,000 in fraudulent tax refunds tied to stolen identities.
What happened: 41-year-old Festus Anyiam was convicted June 5 on four counts of theft of government funds and one count of money laundering. The scheme goes back to 2015, when someone filed fake tax returns using the stolen personal information of taxpayers in Illinois and Missouri.
How it worked: The fake returns told the IRS to send refund payments to a third-party tax preparation software company, which loaded the money onto prepaid debit cards. Those debit cards had been set up using the same stolen taxpayer information. The cards were then used to buy money orders at retail stores around Atlanta.
The money trail: Over three weeks in June and July 2015, Anyiam deposited hundreds of those money orders into his personal bank account through ATMs across metro Atlanta. To cover his tracks, he then bought a cashier’s check for $406,000 and deposited it at a different bank.
The path forward: Anyiam is set to be sentenced September 10 at 10 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Mark H. Cohen. Each of the four theft counts carries up to 10 years in prison. The money laundering count carries up to 20 years. The judge will use federal sentencing guidelines as a reference, though they are not binding.
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
