Miami-Dade Resident Sentenced In Tax Preparation Fraud Scheme

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), announce that Rigoberto Cabrera, 37, of Miami-Dade County, was sentenced today for his participation in a tax preparation fraud scheme. Cabrera was sentenced to 292 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Cabrera was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,526,622.

A federal jury previously convicted Cabrera on 29 counts, including one count of conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to claims, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 18 counts of making false claims to the IRS, four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and four counts of money laundering.

According to the indictment and evidence presented during the trial, defendant Cabrera and co-conspirator Carlos Perez, 34, also of Miami-Dade County, recruited individuals and offered to prepare their individual income tax returns with the promise that the defendants could obtain substantial tax refunds for the taxpayers. The recruited taxpayers agreed to pay Cabrera and Perez a percentage of the refunds they received. The defendants then prepared fraudulent 2008 and 2009 federal income tax returns on behalf of the recruited taxpayers, claiming tax credits or deductions to which the taxpayers were not entitled. After the taxpayers received the fraudulent refunds from the IRS, Cabrera and Perez collected a percentage of the funds from the taxpayers through checks payable to companies that the defendants controlled and shell companies.

Through this scheme, the defendants claimed approximately $10,242,667 in tax refunds from the IRS.

Carlos Perez was sentenced on December 5, 2013 to 33 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Perez pled guilty on September 19, 2013 to Counts 1 and 21 of the superseding indictment, which charges the defendant with conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to claims, and to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of IRS-CI. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel Bernstein and Alejandro O. Soto.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.