Titusville Man Convicted in $9,874 Govt Money Theft

Ricardo Miguel Mayo, 49, of Titusville, walked into federal court a free man — but not for long. A federal jury convicted him yesterday on charges of theft of government money and aggravated identity theft, capping a years-long fraud scheme that began with a forged tax return and ended with cold, stolen cash in his hands.

The crime unfolded in January 2012, when a fraudulent federal tax return was filed in the name of an 84-year-old woman from Georgia — a woman who had no clue her identity had been hijacked. The return claimed a $9,874 refund and requested it be issued via a prepaid debit card, shipped directly to Mayo’s address in Titusville. The system complied. The card arrived. And Mayo began to spend.

By February 2012, the $9,874 government refund was loaded onto the card — issued in the victim’s name — and Mayo immediately moved to drain it. He made a series of large cash withdrawals and purchases, converting federal funds into personal gain. The debit card wasn’t his. The money wasn’t his. But he treated it like it was.

Mayo was indicted on September 21, 2016, after a sprawling investigation led by the St. Cloud Internal Revenue Service-Secret Service Financial Crimes Task Force. The task force includes the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, the United States Secret Service, and multiple local agencies including the St. Cloud Police Department, Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, and several city police departments across Central Florida.

Prosecutors proved at trial that Mayo knowingly used another person’s identity to unlawfully obtain government funds — a violation of federal law carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for theft of government money, followed by a mandatory 2 years for aggravated identity theft. The sentences are expected to run consecutively.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 16, 2017. Assistant United States Attorney Emily C. L. Chang is handling the prosecution. Mayo now faces the reckoning: years behind bars for a crime that started with a fake signature and ended with a federal indictment.