Indianapolis Businessman pleads guilty in fraud scheme

INDIANAPOLIS – United States Attorney Josh J. Minkler announced today that Angel Marchena Suazo, 41, Indianapolis, pled guilty to theft of federal government funds before U.S. District Judge William T. Lawrence. 

     “When someone files fraudulent tax returns, in essence, they steal from all Americans,” said Minkler. “This office will always pursue tax thieves and as the deadline approaches for all of us to pay our taxes, those who choose to steal Treasury funds should be watching over their shoulder.” 

     Marchena Suazo owned Don Angel Multiservices, LLC, which purported to provide tax services and check cashing services in Indianapolis.  The Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation determined that between July 2012 and April 2013, Marchena Suazo cashed approximately 800 stolen or fraudulent tax refund checks through his business, depositing approximately $2.9 million in his business accounts.  Marchena would typically withdraw most of these funds to pay the sources of the stolen or fraudulent refund checks.  He would keep approximately 15 percent of the proceeds for his services in cashing the checks. 

     Starting around January 2014, Marchena Suazo began submitting fraudulent tax returns himself.  In all, he submitted approximately 100 fraudulent returns in an attempt to obtain approximately $227,000 in unearned refunds from the IRS.  In total, he only received approximately $21,000 as the IRS caught most of these fraudulent tax returns and denied payment.

     As part of Marchena Suazo’s plea agreement, he will be ordered by the court to pay full restitution for the criminal tax loss of approximately $2,900,000.            

“With tax season upon us, I want to assure the American taxpayers that IRS Criminal Investigation has made refund fraud and identity theft a top priority,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon.  “We will continue to aggressively pursue the criminals who would steal from the American taxpayer.  The IRS is taking additional steps this tax season to further prevent, detect and resolve identity theft cases as soon as possible just as we have done with this multi-state stolen identity theft fraud ring, involved in procuring bogus checks.”

      According to Assistant United States Attorney Winfield D. Ong, who is prosecuting the case for the government, the offense is punishable by a maximum sentence of ten (10) years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and three (3) year supervised release following any term of imprisonment.  No date for sentencing has been set.