Roger B. Handberg, U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida
A federal court in Jacksonville, Florida, has sentenced Marielys Feliciano Rodriguez to one year of house arrest and ordered her to pay over $3 million in restitution for her involvement in a wire and tax fraud scheme. U.S. District Judge Wendy W. Berger also imposed a five-year term of supervised release on Rodriguez, who is from Orlando.
Rodriguez was found guilty of establishing a shell company that claimed to operate within the construction industry. She obtained workers' compensation insurance under this company's name and "rented" it out to work crews subcontracted by construction contractors across various Florida counties and other states. This allowed numerous undocumented workers to be employed unlawfully.
The fraudulent scheme involved issuing payroll checks for these workers' wages through the shell company, which Rodriguez then cashed before distributing the cash back to the work crews after deducting a fee of about 6%. Over time, she cashed payroll checks totaling approximately $13 million without reporting or paying payroll taxes such as Social Security, Medicare, and federal income tax.
Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Hemker from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) stated: “Fraudulent schemes that provide under-the-table cash payments ultimately exploit undocumented aliens for large profits and undermines the integrity of the industry."
Special Agent in Charge Ron Loecker from IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Tampa Field Office remarked: “Today’s sentence sends a clear message that off-the-books payroll schemes which enable illegal immigrants the ability to work without paying taxes will not be tolerated."
The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the Florida Department of Financial Services. Assistant United States Attorney John Cannizzaro prosecuted the case.
