ATLANTA — A metro Atlanta man has been found guilty of federal theft and money laundering charges in connection with taking more than $400,000 in other people’s tax refunds.
Prosecutors said he then tried to obscure the source of the funds through a series of transactions.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia, says Festus Anyiam, 41, of Norcross, was convicted June 5 of four counts of theft and one count of money laundering after a one-week trial.
“This defendant attempted to conceal his brazen theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent tax refund payments by converting the stolen refunds into money orders and then transferring the cashed money orders into accounts he controlled,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg.
Authorities said the Internal Revenue Service got fraudulent tax returns in 2025 that claimed refunds using the personally identifiable information from people in Missouri and Illinois. The IRS was directed to deposit the refunds to third-party tax preparation software.
That software laundered the refunds into prepaid debit cards that were activated with the stolen identity information, authorities said. These cards were used to buy money orders from stores in the Atlanta area.
Prosecutors said Anyiam then deposited those money orders into his personal bank account during a three-week period in June and July 2015 using ATMs in the metro Atlanta area.
To further obscure the source of the funds, Anyiam then took the $406,000 of fraudulent tax refund money out of his bank account via a cashier’s check. He then deposited the check at another bank, authorities said.
“This verdict is a victory for the U.S. tax system. It should send a message to would-be thieves that IRS-Criminal Investigation and its law enforcement partners will aggressively pursue those who seek to enrich themselves on the backs of U.S. taxpayers,” said Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, St. Louis Field Office, Special Agent in Charge William Steenson.
Anyiam’s sentencing is set for Sept. 10. He faces potentially serious prison time — not more than 10 years in prison for each of the four theft charges and not more than 20 years in prison for the money laundering charge.
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