A Nigerian citizen has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in a series of spearphishing attacks on U.S. accounting firms since 2019.
Chukwuemeka Victor Amachukwu (also known as Chukwuemeka Victor Eletuo and So Kwan Leung), 40, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud following his extradition from France to the United States in August 2025.
“Chukwuemeka Amachukwu believed he was operating safely offshore when he targeted his victims, but he has now been held accountable and now faces severe punishment for his crimes.” said U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald in a press release on Monday.
“Amachukwu engaged in sophisticated schemes to hack into U.S. companies, steal and use victims’ stolen identity information, and commit fraud. These crimes caused significant harm to the victims and the public, and therefore it is only appropriate that the crimes also carry significant punishment for the defendant.”
Accordingly Court documentsAmachukwu and his associates stole more than $3 million after submitting fraudulent tax and loan applications to the Internal Revenue Service and state tax authorities using their victims’ stolen personal information.
Along with co-defendant Kingsley Uchelue Utulu and other Nigerian co-conspirators, Amachukwu launched spearphishing attacks against tax preparation companies in New York, Texas, and other U.S. states between 2019 and 2021, gaining unauthorized access to their targets’ computers and stealing the tax and personally identifiable information (PII) of at least 800 customers.
In total, he allegedly received approximately $2.5 million in fraudulent tax refunds (after claiming $8.4 million in refunds) and another $819,000 through fraudulent loan applications under the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.
Amachukwu was also involved in a sham investment scheme that offered potential U.S. victims investments in so-called “valuable standby letters of credit.” However, these investments did not exist and the scammers stole more than $7 million from multiple victims.
In addition to the prison term, the court sentenced Amachukwu to one year of supervised release and ordered him to pay $3.6 million in restitution and forfeit nearly $11 million.
