Conspiracy Used Information from California Death Records to Seek Tax Refunds
SAN FRANCISCO - A Los Angeles woman was sentenced to 65 months in prison for her role in a conspiracy to cash stolen and fraudulently obtained U.S. Treasury checks, announced U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. The sentence was handed down by Jeffrey S. White, U.S. District Judge, following McDonald’s conviction after a jury trial.
Janel McDonald, 38, was convicted in March of conspiring to commit theft of public money, theft of public money, and aggravated identity theft. McDonald was charged, along with 10 co-defendants, in November 2015. According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, from August 2013 through April 2015, McDonald’s co-conspirators stole deceased individuals’ personal identifying information from California death records and used it to file federal tax returns seeking refunds. They also obtained social security and refund checks that were stolen from the U.S. mail system. McDonald provided fake California IDs to her co-conspirators who used them to cash the stolen and fraudulently obtained U.S. Treasury checks. McDonald caused a tax loss of approximately $471,000.
In addition to the term of prison imposed, Judge White ordered McDonald to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $471,961 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
U.S. Attorney Stretch and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg thanked the attorneys prosecuting the case, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas Newman and Jose Olivera, and Trial Attorney Gregory Bernstein of the Tax Division, as well as the special agents of the IRS Criminal Investigation who conducted the investigation.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
