Columbia, South Carolina - United States Attorney Bill Nettles stated today that Ivon Martinez, age 40 of West Columbia, Alonzo Leon Ortega, age 42 of Lexington, and Francisco Campos Aguilar of Woodruff were sentenced in connection to a scheme to receive over $1.4 million dollars in fraudulent income tax refund checks from the United States Treasury. Leon-Ortega and Campos-Aguilar each entered guilty pleas to one count of conspiracy in violation of 18 United States Code, Section 371. Martinez pleaded guilty to unlawful identification document transfer in violation of 18 United States Code, Section 1028(a)(2) and aggravated identity theft in violation of 18 United States Code, Section 1028A. According to facts presented during the guilty plea hearing, Martinez bought or stole IRS form W-2s from migrant workers in and around the Lexington County area. Martinez and other members of the conspiracy used the W-2 forms to file fraudulent income tax returns, often adding multiple fictitious dependents to inflate the amount of the refunds. Ortega and Aguilar would then use forged Mexican Consular Identification Cards to cash the refund checks at retail locations around Lexington County. Martinez received a sentence of 42 months of incarceration, Leon Ortega received a sentence of 1 year of incarceration and Campos Aguilar received 8 months of home confinement and 5 years’ probation. In addition, all three defendants face possible deportation. Sentencing dates for the other members of the scheme have not been set.
“The IRS is aggressively pursuing those who steal others' identities in order to file false returns," said Thomas J. Holloman, III, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation. “Our cooperative work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office will help protect taxpayers in South Carolina from being victimized by identity theft. The IRS is taking additional steps this tax season to further prevent, detect and resolve identity theft cases as soon as possible." The case was investigated by Special Agents with the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security/HSI, The United States Postal Service and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney T. DeWayne Pearson of the Columbia office. #
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
