An Orange New Jersey woman has been sentenced to almost two years in federal prison for committing identity theft and stealing federal income tax money.
According to federal prosecutors, the suspect conspired to steal victims’ identities and then collected $1.1 million in income tax returns. The fraud reportedly occurred between 2009 and 2013, with the suspect and multiple co-conspirators filing false tax refund applications with stolen identities. The main suspect allegedly doctored the returns so that they would result in refunds from the government.
Special agents with the IRS-Criminal Investigation unit looked into the suspect and determined that she was committing fraud.
Authorities arrested the suspect in February 2015 and charged her with conspiracy to commit embezzlement and embezzlement of U.S. property.
The suspect eventually pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit theft of government property in September 2015.
Now the 54-year-old suspect, who lives in Orange, NJ, is set to go to prison. She recently appeared in U.S. District Court in Trenton New Jersey for a formal sentencing hearing, with the district court judge sentencing the suspect to 21 months behind bars. If the suspect had gone to trial in the case, she would have been subject to a term of incarceration of five years in federal prison.
Additionally, the suspect will be required to take part in a supervised release program after she completes her sentence.
Under the terms of the plea deal reached with U.S. prosecutors, the suspect will also have to pay back $1.1 million in restitution to the government.
For further information about this case, view the NJ.com article, “Woman Gets 2 Years for Creating Identities to Net $11M in Tax Returns.”
