Press Release
FEDERAL JURY CONVICTS FORMER OWNER OF MORTGAGE COMPANY ON CHARGES STEMMING FROM TAX FRAUD SCHEME
June 12, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, announced that a federal jury in Miami found Maritza Valiente, 41, of Miami-Dade County, guilty on Thursday of tax fraud charges following a trial before U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro.
The jury convicted Valiente on all eleven counts against her, including two separate criminal False Claims Act conspiracy charges, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 286, and nine substantive criminal False Claims Act charges, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 287. All charges arose out of a tax fraud scheme that Valiente and others committed in 1999 and 2000. She and three co-defendants had been indicted by a grand jury in 2004, but Valiente was not located until the fall of 2008.
According to evidence presented during the trial, Valiente and her co-conspirator tax preparers created false W-2s claiming wages and withholdings from fiscal year 1999 in the names of bogus employees of Valiente's company, United Mortgage Financing, Inc. They used the false W-2s and other information to prepare fraudulent tax returns claiming refunds for the fictitious employees. Then, in early 2000, they filed the tax returns with the IRS and obtained refund anticipation loan checks in the names of the fictitious employees. Valiente and her co-conspirators then split up the proceeds of the fraud scheme. Over 30 false tax returns were filed with the IRS as part of the scheme, causing the IRS to issue over $100,000 in fraudulent refunds.
Sentencing in the case is scheduled for July 31, 2009. Valiente faces a maximum of sixty-five years' imprisonment.
Mr. Sloman commended the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys H. Ron Davidson and Christopher J. Hunter.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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