Frantz Pierre, formerly of Parkland, Florida but soon to be residing at ClubFed, was sentenced last week to 210 months at ClubFed and must make restitution of $906,556. What did he do? I’ll let the Department of Justice press release tell the story:
According documents filed in court, from July 2010 through May 2011, PIERRE was the leader and organizer of a scheme to steal from the federal government by filling hundreds of fraudulent income tax returns. PIERRE and his co-conspirators used stolen social security numbers and other personal identifiers as well as fabricated employment and income information to complete hundreds of income tax returns and to claim millions of dollars in fraudulent tax refunds.
According to documents filed in court, as part of the scheme, PIERRE and his co-conspirators would establish fictitious tax preparation businesses and then open multiple bank accounts in the names of the fictitious businesses. In addition, PIERRE directed the IRS to deposit the fraudulently obtained income tax refunds into the bank accounts set up by the defendant and his co-conspirators. In total, PIERRE and his co-conspirators submitted approximately 776 fraudulent tax returns to the IRS, resulting in $5,249,935 in tax refunds to be deposited into the fictitious companies’ bank accounts.
There’s not much to add here. I’m glad to see crooks like this get very lengthy terms. Identity theft is miserable for the victims, and many victims did nothing wrong and are victimized. Now, if the IRS could start fully assisting victims instead of putting them through the wringer….
Tags: Identity.Theft