Related Content
Press Release
NEWARK, N.J. – A North Carolina man was sentenced today to three years of probation and ordered to pay more than $750,000 in restitution for role in one of the nation’s largest and longest running stolen identity refund fraud schemes ever prosecuted, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Luis Martinez, 49, of Matthews, N.C., previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi, to an information charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States and theft of government property. The conspiracy caused more than 8,000 fraudulent U.S. income tax returns to be filed, which sought more than $65 million in tax refunds and resulted in losses to the United States of more than $12 million.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Stolen Identity Refund Fraud (SIRF) is a common type of fraud that results in over $2 billion in losses annually to the U.S. Treasury. SIRF schemes generally share a number of hallmarks:
Federal law enforcement agencies, recognizing that SIRF was a serious problem, created a multi-agency task force in New Jersey comprised of investigators from the IRS and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, along with the U.S. Secret Service, and with assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration (the “New Jersey Task Force”).
An investigation led by the New Jersey Task Force with assistance from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations has revealed that starting as early as 2007, dozens of individuals in the New Jersey and New York area have been engaged in a large-scale, long running SIRF scheme. The scheme has caused more than 8,000 fraudulent 1040 forms to be filed, seeking more than $65 million in tax refunds, with losses to the U.S. Treasury of more than approximately $12 million.
Members of the conspiracy obtained personal identifiers, such as dates of birth and Social Security numbers, belonging to Puerto Rican citizens. They used those identifiers to create fake 1040s, which falsely reported wages purportedly earned by the “taxpayers” and taxes purportedly withheld, to create the appearance that the “taxpayers” were entitled to tax refunds. The returns were filed electronically. By tracing the specific IP addresses that submitted them, law enforcement officers learned just a handful of IP addresses created many of the fraudulent forms that led to the issuance of tax refund checks.
Martinez and the other members of the conspiracy then gained control of checks, sometimes bribing mail carriers to intercept checks and deliver them to other members of the conspiracy.
During the course of the investigation, members of the task force identified certain “hot spots” of activity and intercepted more than $22 million in fraudulently-applied for refund checks before they were delivered to members of the conspiracy.
U.S. Attorney Fishman praised special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Marie Kelokates; the U.S. Secret Service, under the direction of Acting Special Agent In Charge Carl Agnelli; and the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Carl J. Kotowski, for the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
In addition to the three-year term of probation, Judge Cecchi ordered Martinez to pay $753,041 in restitution and fined him $10,000.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Danielle Alfonzo Walsman, Mala Ahuja Harker, Lakshmi Srinavasan Herman, and Zach Intrater of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.
15-023
Defense counsel: Barry Goldberg Esq., New York