A Miami resident was sentenced to 42 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release for his participation in an identity theft tax fraud scheme involving the filing of 172 fraudulent tax returns.
Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Brian Swain, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service (USSS), Miami Field Office, and William Hernandez, Chief, North Miami Beach Police Department (NMBPD), made the announcement.
Marvin John Janvier, 22, previously pled guilty to one count of wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343, one count of aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028A(a)(1), and one count of possession of fifteen or more unauthorized access devices, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029(a)(3).
According to court documents, IRS-CI investigators noticed that 172 tax returns claiming refunds totaling $106,202 were filed from Janvier’s residential address from Jan. 21, 2015 through April 25, 2015. Based on this information, a search warrant was executed at Janvier’s residence, and law enforcement found and seized evidence relating to identity theft and the filing of false tax returns, including numerous items containing personal identification information (PII), including names, dates of births, and social security numbers. Specifically, law enforcement found various hand-written notes containing names and addresses of various individuals and email addresses, lists of PII including hand-written notes containing names with numbers or dollar amounts next to the names, and medical and tax client records containing PII. In many of the cases where a number was written next to a name or next to PII, a fraudulent tax return was filed and the number represented the refund amount.
In addition, Janvier’s cellular telephone contained information that appeared on some of the fraudulent tax returns, including bank routing and account numbers, and photographs of Forms W-2 or incoming text messages containing wage and federal income tax withheld figures. Text messages and other conversations on the phone exchanged PII and discussed the filing of tax returns.
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of IRS-CI, USSS, and NMBPD. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daya Nathan.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
