Leah B. Foley United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | Department of Justice
A Brockton woman has been charged with stealing a tax refund check worth nearly $1 million from the United States Treasury. Lana Ruel, age 70, was arrested and appeared in federal court in Boston, where she was released under certain conditions.
Prosecutors allege that Ruel tried to deposit a Treasury tax refund check intended for a healthcare company based in Brooklyn. Before attempting the deposit, she is accused of incorporating a company in Massachusetts using the same name as the victim business and opening a bank account under that name. After her attempt to deposit the check, the bank froze her account. According to charging documents, Ruel contacted the bank and said that she could "explain what the check was, where it came from, and what it’s for…”
Authorities further claim that over two years, Ruel created four other companies in Massachusetts without apparent legitimate business purposes. For one of these entities, she reportedly opened accounts at about eight different banks. Investigators say she received wire transfers into some of these accounts and then moved funds between accounts or made cash withdrawals. The banks have since closed all of these accounts.
The charge of theft of government funds carries a potential penalty of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine up to $250,000. Sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge according to U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and relevant statutes.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Thomas Demeo, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation for Boston; and Nicholas Bucciarelli, Acting Inspector in Charge at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division announced the charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Saltzman from the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit is handling prosecution.
The government notes that all details contained in the charging document are allegations and emphasizes: “The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in the court of law.”
