Robert Rahrle, a 35-year-old formerly from Florida and now residing in the Northern District of New York, has been sentenced to 100 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. The sentencing was announced by United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III and Harry T. Chavis, Special Agent in Charge of the IRS-CI New York Field Office.
Rahrle had previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion charges. He admitted to operating a fraudulent online gift basket service called iCare Gifting Solutions LLC from 2017 through 2024. The website claimed to send care packages to families of incarcerated individuals but failed to deliver any packages despite charging customers around $50 each.
In addition to defrauding customers, Rahrle also evaded federal taxes by filing false tax returns for 2017 and 2018, reporting business losses while omitting significant gross receipts.
Senior United States District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby ordered Rahrle to pay a $2 million money judgment and $178,651 in restitution to the IRS. Restitution for individual victims will be determined later.
U.S. Attorney Sarcone stated: “Driven by greed, Rahrle operated a years’ long fraud scheme scamming people out of millions of dollars. For that he will pay a high price a spend the next 8 years in federal prison. My office will vigorously pursue consumer scam artists like the defendant to protect the public and the public fisc.”
Harry T. Chavis commented: “Mr. Rahrle took advantage of those who wanted to help others and literally did not deliver what was promised... This sentence sees to it that Mr. Rahrle will spend a lot of time behind bars, and perhaps he’ll learn firsthand the potential value of a legitimate care package business.”
The case was investigated by IRS-CI, USPIS, and the U.S. Secret Service's Criminal Investigation Division, with prosecution led by Assistant United States Attorney Michael D. Gadarian.
