TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA B Today Ricardo Jean-Louis, 24, of North Miami, Florida, was sentenced to five years in federal prison for theft of government property, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The sentence was announced by Pamela C. Marsh, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
In 2012, Jean-Louis was involved in a fraudulent scheme to obtain more than $300,000 in federal income tax refunds derived from tax returns that had been filed using the stolen identity information of multiple taxpayers.
Searches conducted by the North Miami Police Department at the residence of Jean-Louis in August 2013 revealed computer information identifying him as a member of the “Money Avenue" street gang known to be involved with identity theft and other economic crimes. Other information retrieved from his computer included the names, dates of birth, and social security numbers of more than 100 persons and records of attempted searches for the personal information of deceased individuals.
As part of his sentence, Jean-Louis was ordered to pay $71,061 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
U.S. Attorney Marsh extended her grateful appreciation to the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Secret Service, and the North Miami Police Department, whose joint investigation led to the conviction in this case.
The government’s case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Rhew-Miller.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
