MASS. TRIO IMPRISONED FOR REFUND SCHEME
Two Lynn, Mass., women and a man were sentenced in federal court for their roles in a conspiracy and scheme to file false federal tax returns to obtain fraudulent tax refunds. Esther Arias, 30, Esther Percel, 48, and Edwin Gonzalez, 35, were sentenced to prison terms.
Arias was sentenced to 60 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, with an order of restitution to federal and state tax authorities in the amount of $70,148. Percel (mother of Arias) was sentenced to serve 36 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, with an order to pay $69,592 in restitution. Gonzalez (former boyfriend of Arias) was sentenced to 42 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, with an order of restitution in the amount of $64,664.
Percel pleaded guilty, while Arias and Gonzalez were convicted after an eight-day trial. The evidence presented at the change-of-plea hearing and at the jury trial proved that from February 1999 to April 2004, the defendants participated in a scheme to use stolen identities to file more than 45 fraudulent tax returns in the names of other individuals. Arias, Percel and Gonzalez illegally claimed more than $200,000 in federal and state tax refunds, from which they received more than $130,000 in refund checks before the scheme ended.
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Tags: false federal income tax return
