$2.8 million fraud against IRS using stolen identities being prosecuted
Four Bronx men entered guilty pleas over the last two weeks to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud and related charges in an effort to steal over $2.8 million in federal tax refunds using stolen identities, announced Acting United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith, Shelly Binkowski, Postal Inspector in Charge, Boston Division, James D. Robnett, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), and acting Chief John Anton, Town of Dewitt Police.
As part of their guilty pleas, Ronnie E. Mejia, 28, Cerrone Hall, 29, Luis Morillo, 28, and Jeffrey Carvajal, 26, all residents of the Bronx, admitted that they conspired to defraud the IRS by creating and electronically filing false and fraudulent tax returns that utilized stolen identities from Puerto Rico and mailing addresses in the Syracuse area and elsewhere.
The scheme fell apart on Sept. 21, 2011, when an alert house painter in Dewitt called police when he saw a car cruising up and down the street stealing mail from residential mailboxes. Dewitt Police stopped a Toyota Camry occupied by Ronnie E. Mejia and Jeffrey Carvajal matching the description of the suspect vehicle.
Dewitt police officers and U.S postal inspectors searched the vehicle and located eight un-mailed federal income tax returns that included stolen personal identification information from people who live in Puerto Rico. Dewitt police located a second vehicle nearby occupied by Luis Morillo and Jeffrey Carvajal. A search of this vehicle located six U.S. Treasury tax refund checks stolen from residential mailboxes in Dewitt and Syracuse.
In the following days, Special Agents from IRS-CI recovered over $700,000 in fraudulent tax refund checks obtained through the electronic filing of false and fraudulent tax returns using stolen identities from Puerto Rican residents and addresses of uninvolved persons in the Syracuse area. In all, the scheme included over 380 fraudulent tax returns seeking refunds of over $2.8 million.
Cerrone Hall pled guilty on Nov. 1, 2017, will be sentenced on March 1, 2018 and faces a sentence of up to 22 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three-year term of supervised release in connection with his convictions for conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, as well as aggravated identity theft.
Luis Morillo pled guilty on Nov. 7, 2017, will be sentenced on March 2, 2018 and faces up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three-year term of supervised release in connection with his conviction for conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud.
Ronnie Mejia pled guilty on Nov. 9, 2017, will be sentenced on March 13, 2018 and faces a sentence of up to 24 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three-year term of supervised release in connection with his convictions for conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, as well as two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Jeffrey Carvajal pled guilty on Nov. 9, 2017, will be sentenced on March 14, 2018 and faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three-year term of supervised release in connection with his convictions for conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, as well as theft of government property. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations, the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Town of Dewitt Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Southwick.
