US-based Nigerian professor jailed two years for tax fraud
A United States-based Professor of Nigeria origin, Gordian Ndubizu, has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by a Trenton federal court for tax evasion.
PUNCH Metro gathered in a statement by the US Department of Justice on Tuesday that Ndubizu, aside from being a Professor of Accounting, also co-owned a pharmacy company whose earning was not declared.
The statement noted that Ndubizu alongside his wife, ran the pharmacy which earned about $3.28m in income, resulting in the evasion of approximately $1.25m in tax due and owing between 2014 and 2017.
It read, “A Mercer County, New Jersey man was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for evading federal income taxes and filing false tax returns, acting U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna announced.
“During tax years 2014 through 2017, Ndubizu was a professor of accounting at a university in Pennsylvania as well as the co-owner of Healthcare Pharmacy in Trenton, New Jersey. Healthcare Pharmacy was organised as an S corporation, the income of which flowed through to Ndubizu and his wife and was to be reported on their personal income tax returns.
“Ndubizu failed to report approximately $3.28 million in income from the pharmacy, resulting in the evasion of approximately $1.25 million in tax due and owing.”
The statement added that the couple prepared fraudulent tax documents and transferred the earnings from the pharmacy to an automobile company’s account in Nigeria which was controlled by the convict.
“Ndubizu prepared fraudulent books and records for Healthcare Pharmacy inflating the pharmacy’s costs of goods sold to reduce and underreport the pharmacy’s actual profits flowing through to Ndubizu and his wife.
“In the fraudulent books and records, among other things, Ndubizu identified certain wire transfers as payments to purchase goods sold by the pharmacy when those wire transfers were made to personal bank accounts under Ndubizu’s control and to bank accounts in Nigeria associated with an automotive company under Ndubizu’s control.
“Each of Ndubizu’s tax returns for tax years 2014 through 2017 falsely underreported his income and falsely reported that he had no financial interest in or signature authority over any foreign bank accounts.”
It stated that the convict was charged with eight counts but was convicted on four counts bordering on false tax returns.
“Gordian A. Ndubizu, of Princeton Junction, New Jersey, was convicted on August 15, 2024, of all eight counts of an indictment charging him with four counts of tax evasion and four counts of filing false tax returns in tax years 2014 through 2017, following a four-day trial before U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, who imposed the sentence today (March 3) in Trenton federal court,” the statement concluded.
Ndubizu’s conviction joined the list of Nigerians who have been convicted in the US for various offences bordering on fraud, and romance scams among others.
PUNCH Metro reported on December 6 that two Nigerians, Okechuckwu Osuji and Tolulope Bodunde, who were co-conspirators in a business email compromise scheme, were sentenced to a combined jail term of 10 years by a United States federal jury.
Osuji and Bodunde were jailed following their conviction in a fraudulent scheme that targeted US companies and elderly citizens, leading to a loss of about $6m to their victims.
Similarly, on December 20, our correspondent reported that a US-based Nigerian, Oluwole Adegboruwa, and his accomplice, Enrique Isong, were sentenced to 40 years combined jail term for coordinating the sales and distribution of a banned drug through the dark web across several states in the US.
Adegboruwa led a syndicate of drug peddlers whom he instructed on how drugs obtained by customers through a dark web marketplace were packaged and distributed.
