A man arrested in Darien after he and some associates tried to deposit an $8,879 check at TD Bank has been sentenced to two years in prison and told to pay back $360,026.66 in restitution to victims.
Cesar Penson-Perez of New York City, who was 28 years old when he was arrested by Darien police in March 2014, participated in a tax-fraud scheme. Overall, Penson-Perez and his co-conspirators were responsible for the loss of more than $7.5 million from the U.S. Treasury, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Haven.
The arrest
Penson-Perez and a conspirator tried to open a bank account with $40, but bank employees became suspicious when the signature of Penson-Perez’ co-conspirator didn’t match what the bank already had on file for the person in whose name the pair tried to use, according to a news report at the time.
Darien police were called in, and when police called the Connecticut Financial Crimes Task Force, police were told the two were part of a larger conspiracy of thieves using Social Security numbers of Puerto Rico residents to file phony tax returns, according to the report.
The scheme
The conspirators stole personal information that allowed them to file false tax returns for various individuals and get refund checks from the IRS.
It could have been worse, as this description of the scheme from the U.S. Attorney’s Office describes it:
“According to court documents and statements made in court, this matter stems from an investigation into individuals who, through various means, obtained fraudulent U.S. Treasury tax refund checks using stolen identities.
“After obtaining the checks, individuals sold them for less than face value of the checks, or deposited them into bank accounts that had been opened using fraudulent identifying documents. The funds were then quickly withdrawn from the bank accounts.
“The investigation revealed that Julio Lara Trinidad, a resident of Waterbury, and his co-conspirators opened at least 59 bank accounts in the names of identity theft victims, deposited U.S. Treasury tax refund checks into the accounts, and then quickly withdrew the funds, resulting in more than $663,000 in loss to the U.S. Treasury.
“Between December 2012 and February 2013, one of the accounts was used to purchase six licenses for a brand of tax preparation software.
“These licenses were used to file more than 36,000 federal income tax returns, seeking more than $234 million in federal tax refunds intended to be issued to Trinidad and his co-conspirators.
“Nearly $6.8 million in fraudulent refunds were issued before the scheme was identified.”
The result
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Janet Hall sentenced Penson-Perez in U.S. District Court in New Haven to two years in prison, followed by three years of probation, and ordered him to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution.
On May 15 ,Perez-Penson had “pleaded guilty to one count of theft of public money and admitted that he worked with Trinidad to open bank accounts using fraudulent identities, deposit stolen checks into the accounts and withdraw the resulting funds,” a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Trinidad has already been sentenced to 144 months (12 years) imprisonment. Two other conspirators also pleaded guilty last May in connection to the scheme.