Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and J.D. Patterson, Director, Miami-Dade Police Department, announce that Roshawn Jermaine Davis, 38, of Miami, was sentenced for his participation in a stolen identity tax refund scheme. Davis was sentenced to 57 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Davis previously pled guilty to one count of possession of fifteen or more unauthorized access devices, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029(a)(3), and aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028A(a)(1).
According to court documents, during a traffic stop of a vehicle Davis was driving, a bag was found containing pre-paid debit cards in other individuals’ names, together with over 150 pieces of personal identification information (PII) on handwritten sheets of paper, printouts, and patient information sheets from doctors’ offices. Some of the sheets had handwritten notes indicating dollar amounts, routing numbers, and account numbers.
Court documents also state that fraudulent tax returns were filed for the 2011 tax year on behalf of at least sixteen individuals whose PII was found in the defendant’s bag. The handwritten dollar amounts listed on the documents found in the bag matched the tax refund amounts on the sixteen fraudulent tax returns.
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the Identity Theft Tax Refund Strike Force, with special commendation to IRS-CI and the Miami-Dade Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John R. Byrne.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
