February 7, 2002

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY MAN SENTENCED TO PRISON
FOR IDENTITY THEFT, FILING BOGUS INCOME TAX RETURNS

 A Sherman Oaks man was sentenced today to 15 months in federal prison for his conviction on identity theft charges as well as filing false income tax returns that sought nearly $1.2 million in refunds from the Internal Revenue Service.
 Chuck Nnamdi Opara, 32, was sentenced today by United States District Judge J. Spencer Letts. Opara previously pleaded guilty to two counts of making false claims to the government and two counts of identity theft.
 According to court documents filed in this case, Opara engaged in a multi-million dollar fraud scheme. As part of the scheme, Opara stole the identities of 24 people, and he submitted bogus Federal income tax returns for those people that sought average refunds of $50,000. The fraudulent tax returns asked that refunds be mailed to two dozen mail-drops that Opara had acquired.
 Some of the bogus tax returns were submitted electronically to the IRS through Intuit Corporation, the company that makes the popular “Quicken” accounting software and whose services include Internet filing of Federal income tax returns.
 This case is the result of an investigation by IRS-Criminal Investigation.

 Release No. 02-027

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