Kingpin Sentence in Income Tax Refund Scheme

Contact Person: T. DeWayne Pearson (803) 929-3000

Columbia, South Carolina - United States Attorney Bill Nettles stated today that Flavio Torres-Tello, a.k.a. “El Jefe”, age 42, of Newberry was sentenced in connection with a scheme that netted him and others $1.4 million dollars in fraudulent income tax refund checks from the United States Treasury. Torres-Tello pleaded guilty to unlawful identification document transfer in violation of 18 United States Code, Section 1028(a)(2) and aggravated identity theft in violation of 18 United States Code, Section 1028A. According to facts presented during the guilty plea hearing, Torres-Tello directed others to buy or steal IRS form W-2s from migrant workers in and around the Lexington County area. Torres-Tello used the W-2 forms to file hundreds of fraudulent income tax returns, often adding multiple fictitious dependents to inflate the amount of the refunds. Torres-Tello would then generate forged Mexican Consular Identification Cards to use as identification in order to cash the refund checks at retail locations. Torres-Tello received a sentence of 61 months of incarceration and faces deportation upon his release.

“The IRS is aggressively pursuing those who steal others' identities in order to file false returns,” said Thomas J. Holloman, III, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation. “Our cooperative work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office will help protect taxpayers in South Carolina from being victimized by identity theft. The IRS is taking additional steps this tax season to further prevent, detect and resolve identity theft cases as soon as possible.” The case was investigated by Special Agents with the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security/HSI, the United States Postal Inspection Service and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney T. DeWayne Pearson of the Columbia office.

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