Miami Man Sentenced in $2.3 Million Identity Theft Tax Refund Check Cashing Scam

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Cincinnati Field Office, Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-CI, Miami Field Office, and Ronald Verrochio, Inspector in Charge, United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Miami Field Office, announce that Christopher Jackson, 42 of Miami, was sentenced to 78 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to one count of mail fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1341, for a tax refund scheme that resulted in the cashing of over $2.3 million in fraudulent tax refund checks.

According to the evidence presented at sentencing, from in or around January 2012 through in or around April 2014, the defendant obtained over five hundred fraudulently obtained U.S. Department of Treasury tax refund checks totaling over $2.3 million. The defendant subsequently sent these tax refund checks to a check casher in Cincinnati for cashing. The check casher mailed cash back for these checks to the defendant in Miami. The defendant did not have the authorization of the taxpayer and the defendant supplied either false identification documents or no identification documents to the Cincinnati check casher. Many of the tax refund checks had been obtained using the identity information of people who typically do not file tax returns, such as deceased persons, prisoners, and elderly individuals.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of IRS-CI and USPIS. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael N. Berger.

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.