South Florida Man Sentenced To Four Years In Federal Prison For Income Tax Fraud

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Marvens Jean-Paul, 21, of Opa Locka, Florida, was sentenced yesterday to 48 months in federal prison for his leadership role in a conspiracy to file false claims for federal income tax refunds, involving stolen identities.  Jean-Paul was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle.
 
Jean-Paul pled guilty in 2012 to two counts of conspiracy to file false claims, seven counts of wire fraud, and four counts of aggravated identity theft based upon his involvement in schemes to file false claims for more than $1 million in federal tax refunds in 2010 and 2011.  Jean-Paul admitted to stealing personal identifying information from an office on the campus of Florida A&M University, resulting in the victimization of several recent graduates of FAMU.  Illegally using the information of these victims, Jean-Paul and his co-conspirators filed false tax returns that included false wage and income information, as well as false withholding information.  At Jean-Paul’s direction, his co-defendants, Kimle Fils-Aime and Guerline St. Charles, cashed tax refund checks generated by one of the schemes at JP Morgan Chase Bank in North Miami, where they worked as tellers.   In addition to the checks, Jean-Paul also arranged for the illegally obtained tax refunds to be loaded onto prepaid debit cards, which were used to wire transfer cash.  As a result of the false claims, Jean-Paul obtained more than $279,398 in fraudulent income tax refunds.

As part of his sentence, Jean-Paul was ordered to pay $280,285 in restitution.  Last year, St. Charles and Fils-Aime each pled guilty to conspiracy and were sentenced for their roles in the scheme.  Fils-Aime was sentenced to 12 months in prison and ordered to pay $86,748 in restitution.  St. Charles was sentenced to five years’ probation, with eight months’ home detention, and was ordered to pay $73,320.03 in restitution.

“As the number of greedy offenders willing to steal identities and tax dollars has grown, so has our ability to track, investigate, arrest, and prosecute these cases, effectively and cooperatively,” said Pamela C. Marsh, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.  “We are pursuing those engaged in these schemes, with intensity, and we are ready for tax season.”  Ms. Marsh expressed her grateful appreciation for the work of Internal Revenue Service -- Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, whose joint investigation led to the convictions in the case. 

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Winifred Acosta NeSmith.