San Jose Resident Pleads Guilty To Stealing Homeless Individuals’ IDs And Using Them To Seek Fraudulent Tax Refunds

SAN JOSE – Diep Vo, aka Nancy Vo, pleaded guilty to conspiring to file false claims for tax refunds, submitting false claims for tax refunds, mail fraud, and aggravated identity theft, announced U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.  The plea was accepted late yesterday by the Honorable Beth Labson Freeman, U.S. District Judge.

According to documents and information provided to the court, Vo, 74, of San Jose, conspired with codefendant Trong Nguyen, aka John Nguyen, to use the personal information of people, including homeless people in the San Jose Vietnamese community, to file fraudulent claims for refunds with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  Vo went to homeless shelters and halfway houses and falsely represented to individuals that she could get them money from a government program designed to assist people who had not worked in previous years.  Vo convinced people to write down their names and social security numbers and to sign blank income tax returns.  Vo and Nguyen then falsified the signed returns by including bogus income and income tax withheld amounts and sought fraudulent refunds from the IRS.  Vo and Nguyen directed the IRS to send the refund checks to private mailboxes they controlled.  On May 18, 2017, a federal grand jury indicted Vo charging her with one count of conspiracy to file false claims, in violation of 18 U.S. C. § 286; three counts of aiding and abetting in filing false claims, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 287 & 2; two counts of mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341; and two counts of aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18 U.C.S. §§ 1028A & 2.  Pursuant to her plea, Vo pleaded guilty to all counts.

Nguyen previously pleaded guilty to submitting and conspiring to submit false claims for refund. 

Vo’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 14, 2017.  Vo faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison on each count of conspiring to file false claims and submitting false claims for refund, 20 years in prison for each count of mail fraud, and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft.  Vo also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties.  Nguyen is scheduled to be sentenced on July 25, 2017. 

U.S. Attorney Stretch and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Newman and Trial Attorney Gregory Bernstein of the Tax Division, who are prosecuting the case as well as the special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation who conducted the investigation.