Crime & Safety

Seven Charged in Tax Refund Fraud

Group used phony returns to get cash from IRS, government says

More than half a dozen people have been charged in a multimillion dollar scheme to fraudulently obtain income tax refunds using stolen personal information and bribes to mail carriers, US Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman announced Wednesday.

Fausto Bernard, 48, of Newark was arrested Wednesday while Gloria Rivera, a 39-year-old Bronx resident, and Lourdes Ortiz, 40, of Ridgewood, surrendered. Another defendant, 43-year-old Luis Pena of Yonkers, NY, was arrested Tuesday. All were scheduled to appear in federal court in Newark Wednesday.

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Raymundo Hernandez, 34, of the Bronx, is in custody in New York while another two men, Wellington Feliz and Isasias Hernandez, also of the Bronx, are still at large.

The government alleges that between December 2011 and April, the group received $2 million in IRS refunds after using stolen identity information to fill out tax returns. Rivera and Ortiz, who are postal carriers in Queens, NY, allegedly brought the checks to Pena, then the checks were deposited into straw bank accounts controlled by the other defendants, Fishman said. The accounts were associated with straw businesses, he also said.

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Some of the cash was reportedly used for gambling trips to Atlantic City and to purchase new cars. 


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