Tampa Woman Pleads Guilty To Stolen Identity Refund Fraud

Tampa, FL – Acting United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that Tressa V. Guy (41, Tampa) yesterday pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.  Guy also agreed to forfeit $790,421.28 to the United States as proceeds of the offense.  Guy will be sentenced on January 9, 2014, and faces up to twenty-two years in prison.

According to the plea agreement, Guy and her co-conspirators orchestrated a scheme to defraud the United States Treasury by causing fraudulent federal income tax returns to be filed using stolen identities, soliciting personal identifying information and addresses from co-conspirators in Florida and Georgia for use in the scheme, and coordinating the withdrawal of fraudulently-obtained tax refund amounts from prepaid debit cards.  The identities used to file the fraudulent tax returns in this scheme belonged to individuals living in various states across the country.  As part of the conspiracy, at least 322 federal income tax returns for tax year 2011 were filed from nine IP addresses claiming refunds of $2,701,844.00 and resulting in a loss to the IRS of $790,421.28.

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, the Tampa Police Department, and the Monroe County, Georgia Sheriff’s Office with assistance from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.  It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Matthew J. Mueller and Trial Attorney Jason H. Poole of the Department of Justice, Tax Division.