Sent the IRS more than $3.6 million in bogus payments
ALBANY, NEW YORK - PATRICIA ALFIERI, 53, of Schenectady, pled guilty today before Chief U.S. District Judge Gary L. Sharpe to mail fraud and filing a false federal income tax return, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent in Charge Toni M. Weirauch. ALFIERI is scheduled to be sentenced on March 11, 2014, in Albany, New York. She faces a maximum term of incarceration of twenty years and a fine of up to $250,000 for the mail fraud charge, and a maximum term of incarceration of three years and a fine of up to $100,000 for the charge of filing a false federal income tax return.
In the plea agreement, ALFIERI admitted that from 2008 through 2013, she mailed 65 bogus checks, in a total amount of more than $3.6 million, to the Internal Revenue Service to cause the IRS to issue “overpayment refunds" to her. Her actions caused the IRS to issue her more than $87,000. The defendant created many of the checks using a computer.
ALFIERI also admitted that she submitted false tax returns to the IRS in 2008, 2009, and 2010 in an effort to avoid paying income tax. Those returns were false because ALFIERI (1) claimed that her federal income tax withholding was higher than it actually was and (2) claimed that she had paid home mortgage interest and real estate taxes when she had not.
The case was investigated by Special Agents of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey C. Coffman.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
