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1995-01-03
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Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 23:46:20 EDT
From: <Nigel.Allen@LAMBADA.OIT.UNC.EDU>
Subject: File 6--Calif. Woman Convicted in Computerized Tax Refund Scheme
California Woman Convicted in Income Tax Refund Scheme
Press release from the U.S. Justice Department.
To: National Desk, California Correspondent
Contact: U.S. Department of Justice, 202-514-2007
FRESNO, Calif., Aug. 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Acting Assistant Attorney
General James A. Bruton and the United States Attorney for the Eastern
District of California, George L. O'Connell, announced Monday, Aug.
17, that Enedina Ochoa of Turlock, Calif., 26, was convicted by a
federal jury on Friday, Aug. 14, of one count of conspiracy to defraud
the government and 20 counts of assisting others in filing false
income tax refund claims with the Internal Revenue Service.
The jury trial lasted four days before United States District Judge
Oliver W. Wanger. Wanger ordered Ochoa held in custody pending
sentencing.
Ochoa's scheme exploited the Internal Revenue Service's newly
implemented electronic filing system, which allows filers of refund
claims to receive their refund checks in one or two days. By causing
large numbers of false refund claims to be electronically filed, Ochoa
and her co-conspirator, Karleena Pulido, fraudulently obtained
approximately $100,000 from the Internal Revenue Service. Most of the
criminal activity involved 1991 federal income tax returns filed
earlier this year.
Ochoa and Pulido, a Turlock income tax preparer who pled guilty two
weeks ago to conspiracy to defraud the government and 29 counts of
assisting others in filing false claims for income tax refunds,
engaged in a scheme to electronically file false refund claims with
the I.R.S. by recruiting individuals to provide their real names and
social security numbers for use by Pulido on false Forms W-2 which
Pulido fabricated. Ochoa then assisted the recruited individuals in
electronically filing these false refund claims with the I.R.S. from
electronic return transmitters such as Cash-N-Dash, an income tax
transmittal and check cashing service headquartered in Fresno. Ochoa
and Pulido then divided divided the refund proceeds among themselves
and the individuals they recruited.
The long-standing I.R.S. system of filing paper returns requires a
taxpayer to wait several weeks before receiving a refund check. Ochoa
and Pulido face a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment and a
fine of $250,000 for the conspiracy convictions and five years
imprisonment for each conviction of assisting in the filing of a false
claim. Sentencing is set for Oct. 19, and Oct. 26, for Pulido and
Ochoa, respectively, before Wanger.
The case is the result of an extensive and ongoing investigation of
electronic filing fraud by special agents of the Internal Revenue
Service's Criminal Investigation Division, and was prosecuted by
Department of Justice Tax Division Trial Attorneys Eric C. Lisann and
Floyd J. Miller. It is the first prosecution of this type of crime in
this judicial district, and is one of only a very few such cases that
have gone to trial anywhere in the United States since the inception
of the Internal Revenue Service's electronic filing system. Acting
Assistant Attorney General James Bruton stated, "This
conviction serves as notice that the federal government is committed
to early detection and prosecution of electronic filing schemes.
Blatant abuse of the Internal Revenue Service's computerized refund
program will not be tolerated." According to Rick Speier, chief of
the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division in San
Jose and Fresno, "as the use of electronic filing increases, the
Internal Revenue Service will continue to be vigilant in identifying
electronic filing schemes organized by unscrupulousindividuals who
seek to exploit the system for criminal purposes."
------------------------------
From: Rita Marie Rouvalis <rita@EFF.ORG>
Subject: File 7--EFF Receives Dvorak/Zoom Award
Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253