Luis Morillo to Serve 45 Months in Prison and Pay $478,320 in Restitution
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - Luis Morillo, age 28, of the Bronx, New York, was sentenced today to serve 45 months in prison for his conviction for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, announced United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith, James Robnett, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigations, New York Field Office, and Delany De Leon-Colon, Acting Inspector in Charge, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Division. In addition to his prison term of 45months, Luis Morillo was also sentenced to a 3-year term of supervised release following his release from incarceration and was ordered to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $478,320.
As part of his previous guilty plea, Luis Morillo admitted that he conspired to steal federal income tax refunds as part of scheme involving fraudulent tax returns filed using stolen identities from residents of Puerto Rico. The scheme involved an attempt to steal a total of 2.8 million dollars in refunds from fraudulent tax returns filed with the stolen identities. The IRS mailed refund checks generated from these false returns to residential locations (chosen by members of conspiracy) of uninvolved residents in the Syracuse and Binghamton, New York areas. Luis Morillo and three co-defendants were stopped by police on Sept. 26, 2011, as they were in the process of stealing tax refund checks from mailboxes in Dewitt, New York. Following the discovery of the scheme, the IRS was able to prevent payment of many of the refunds. Luis Morillo’s co-defendant, Cerrone Hall, also of the Bronx, New York, was sentenced on April 25, 2018 to serve 5 years in prison. Two other co-defendants have pled guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced in May 2018.
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations, The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Town of Dewitt Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Southwick.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
