Man Arrested at Motel 6 in Addison is Sentenced to 110 Months in Federal Prison and Ordered to pay More Than $3.5 Million Restitution in Stolen Tax Refund Scheme

DALLAS — Farai Marunda was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey to 110 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $3,519,925 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) following his guilty plea last year to one count of access device fraud, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

 According to the factual resume filed in the case, when officers with the Addison Police Department detected the odor of marijuana coming from a particular room at the Motel 6 on Belt Line Drive in Addison, Texas, Marunda spoke with the officers and gave them consent to search the room for marijuana.  While the officers spoke with others who were in the room, Marunda removed two debit cards from his wallet and hid them under a folded mat by the edge of the bath tub.  Marunda, according to the factual resume, also had a briefcase in the room, and in it officers found a small zippered case containing five thumb drives, two HP laptop computers, a T-Mobile hotspot device, six Visa debit cards in the names of six people, two blank Western Union Visa debit cards, a Wal-Mart receipt listing the purchase of a green dot moneypak prepaid card, and a listing that contained handwritten names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, email addresses, and credit card account numbers.

Pursuant to a federal search warrant for Marunda’s computers and hard drives, special agents with IRS Criminal Investigation found hundreds of computer files containing thousands of items of personal identifying information.  The devices also contained tax filing software with tax return filing information for tax years 2010, 2011 and 2012.

IRS Criminal Investigation and the Addison Police Department investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Stokes was in charge of the prosecution.

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