Gladys Maria Pena Dominguez Sentenced for Tax Refund ID Theft Scam

CONCORD, N.H. — A former Nashua resident has been locked away for a sophisticated scheme that siphoned hundreds of thousands from the U.S. Treasury through tax refund fraud and identity theft. Gladys Maria Pena Dominguez, 35, of the Bronx, was sentenced on Monday to serve 54 months in federal prison by Acting United States Attorney John J. Farley.

Pena Dominguez was caught in a complex web where she couriered around 161 Treasury tax refund checks totaling nearly $1.1 million from New York to her co-conspirator, Kenneth Feliz, in New Hampshire. The checks were the fruits of false tax returns filed using real people’s Social Security numbers and mailing addresses without their consent.

The defendant’s role in the scheme was as a courier for the fraudulently obtained checks, which she exchanged for cash from Feliz. She pleaded guilty to theft of government property, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy earlier in the case.

Upon completing her prison sentence, Pena Dominguez will be on supervised release for three years and is required to pay $1,095,879.44 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Her co-conspirator, Kenneth Feliz, is set for sentencing on July 10th, 2017.

The investigation was led by the IRS Criminal Investigation unit’s Manchester field office with support from counterparts in New York and their Fraud Detection Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Bill Morse handled the prosecution of the case.

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