United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner
Eastern District of California
Former IRS Employee Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Submit False Tax Returns to the Irs in the Names of State Prisoners
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | CONTACT: Lauren Horwood |
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April 29, 2011 |
PHONE: (916) 554-2706 |
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www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae |
usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov |
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Docket #: 1:10-cr-00467 LJO |
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FRESNO, Calif. – United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Patricia Serbera Robledo, 51, of Fresno, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to submit false and fraudulent income tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the names of state prisoners.
Patricia Serbera Robledo admitted in her plea that from March 2005 to June 2007 she conspired with co-defendant Abel Robledo, her husband at the time, to submit false individual federal 1040EZ income tax returns to the IRS in the names of Abel Robledo and other state prisoners. During this time, she was employed by the IRS in Fresno, while her husband was a state prisoner incarcerated at Corcoran State Prison. The income tax returns claimed false wage earnings by the prisoners, and claimed false federal income tax withholdings that did not exist, thereby fraudulently claiming tax refunds. The prisoners actually either had no earnings or earned only a minimal amount, had no withholdings, and were not entitled to any tax refunds. The IRS issued tax refunds totaling over $13,000 based on the false returns.
This case is the product of a joint investigation by the IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Sherriff.
Patricia Serbera Robledo is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Lawrence J. O'Neill on July 22, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. Co-defendant Abel Robledo previously pleaded guilty to the conspiracy, and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 27, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. The maximum statutory penalty for the conspiracy conviction is five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and up to three years of supervised release. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory sentencing factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
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